


Shades of Black and White

by AngelofShadows



Series: Shades of Us [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altered/Extended Timeline, Biting, Bottom Keith (Voltron), Dark Shiro (Voltron), Descriptions of Past Rape/Non-Con, Double Penetration, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, I forgot to add that one before, I lost years off my life writing that tag, I swear that tag will make sense in context, I'm also surprised it wasn't a tag already wtf, I'm making it a thing, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Keith has Major Past Trauma, Kuro goes through some shit before the end folks, M/M, Mild Blood, Mild torture, Panic Attacks, Past Child Abuse, Phone Sex, Plot With Porn, Polyamory, Porn with Feelings, Pretend Rape/Non-Con, Protective Keith (Voltron), Protective Kuro (Voltron), Shiro has to be the Calm One, Shiro listens to the other two bang at one point, Switch Kuro (Voltron), Switch Shiro (Voltron), Threesome - M/M/M, a posessive cat, but not really because he's a giant cat, but that's definitely something that happens, consensual voyeurism, in a sense?, is that a thing?, sorry to add more angst tags but, they're all into it, you'd think from the tags that this is all about sex but it ain't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-07-03 12:12:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 55,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15818649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelofShadows/pseuds/AngelofShadows
Summary: Shiro was supposed to be Haggar’s greatest weapon, but he was too soft, so she created another who was more like what a Champion of the Galra should be. Her mistake was leaving him mostly human. Shiro and Keith save Shiro’s “Evil Clone” and teach him how to be more than the monster Haggar wanted him to be.Or: The entirely self-indulgent Kuro fic that is no longer needed because of the Real Clone Scenario but you can pry Fanon!Kuro and this OT3 from my cold dead fingers.





	1. Prologue: Ebony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, friends! This fic is entirely self indulgent and also long overdue... especially since I came up with the idea even before TLABL so before S3 came out and WELL BEFORE KURON WAS A CANON THING. And now here I am posting this after Kuron's arc is over. Boy am I good at timing. Oh well. As they say, write what you want to read, and there are far too few fics with our favorite fanon clone, so here. Have the first bit of this, featuring a look into Haggar's mind!

Haggar receives news of the Champion’s escape, and in her anger, incinerates the messenger. The Champion – _her_ Champion – is lost to them, and along with him, so many possibilities, so much room for experimentation and improvement. The alien had been small and soft, but he’d held so much _potential_. It makes her more frustrated than she’s felt in decaphoebs.

The Champion was supposed to be her greatest weapon. Her finest creation. But he was too soft, too empathic. As brutal as he was in the ring, it was only because he fought to live, not because he loved the blood and violence. He was not Galra, and that presented a problem, especially when he escaped. She had been working on a way to _fix_ the champion, make him the soldier she wanted, the one that could be proud of his service to the empire. But now he was lost, and the High Priestess had to start from scratch. She wanders her workshop and pauses, looking up at the piece of the Champion she removed. The first step in making him her weapon.

She takes  the large jar down from the shelf and examines the severed limb thoughtfully. She didn’t need the champion. She could easily craft something to outdo the weak human. Something more Galra, that thirsted for blood and would fight to the death for the thrill of it.

She turns and makes her way to the labs. She has some work to do.

~*~

Many, many phoebs later, Haggar looks at the report in her hands with a grimace on her face. Voltron has freed a Balmera, ejecting all of the troops the Empire had stationed there and destroying the equipment and sentries as well. These paladins, these _children_ are becoming much more of a nuisance than she had anticipated. She wishes she’d managed to prevent the Champion’s escape even now. He’s leading the charge against them, like he’s laughing in her face, and she bristles at the thought.

She knows Lord Zarkon is getting more and more frustrated the longer the Champion and his brood keep the Black Lion out of his grasp, and when the Emperor is not happy, she is not happy. And when the High Priestess is not happy, she tends to get vindictive.

She has a plan – the one formed and executed after the Champion’s unfortunate escape – that she had been meaning to implement for a while. She’s even been testing it out. Her subject seems to preform well in the ring, much like its predecessor. She has yet to put it to proper use. But judging by Voltron’s successes, now might just be the time to test it out properly.

She stands and exits her chamber, the two druids that had been standing watch at the door fall into step behind her.

“High Priestess?” One asks, and she holds up a hand to silence them both. She has no time for questions, only actions.

She goes down deep into the bowels of the ship, down to the cells where their prisoners wait to fight in the arena for the amusement of their emperor and officers. She ventures to the lowest cells, where the most vicious, the most dangerous and vile of their slaves are kept. The ones who are eager to taste blood in the ring. Where her pet resides alongside all the other bloodthirsty fighters ready and willing to maim and tear and kill.

She pauses in front of the last cell. She can hear snarling and screaming and tearing of flesh inside, and she smiles.

She turns to the druids behind her.

“Open the cell.”

They glide around her in their rush to obey, typing in the two codes that keep this heavily reinforced door shut tight. The door hisses open slowly, the light from the hall falling over various shades of blood and other fluids on the floor, and all manner of aliens crammed together in the cell. They all lift their heads to the light, ready to try and fight their way out, but then they see her, and their plans change, falling back to cower and hide against the walls. They know better than to try and challenge her.

She steps into the cell and they all shrink back further.

“I am here for my creation.” She says, and all their heads turn to a corner of the cell that is still dark, the light from the hall not strong enough to reach it.

She steps further into the cell, walking towards the corner, ignoring the way the other prisoners flinch at her proximity. She can hear something breathing, slow and steady, calm despite her presence. Good. It was conditioned to never show fear.

“It is time.” She tells the unseen gladiator. “It is finally time for you to do what you were created to do. You will fight them, and they will fall before you. You will fulfill your role as the Champion’s downfall.”

The darkness stirs. A pair of glowing yellow eyes open in the gloom, and sharp teeth flash as the creature grins, a cold laugh echoing quietly in the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know it's short. Which is why I've also posted the next chapter at the same time (spoilers, it's also short). So, proceed. ->


	2. Void

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the first actual chapter which is slightly longer than the prologue but still short.
> 
> Beginning two paragraphs of chapter taken from Chapter 14 of Last of the Real Ones. (Because this uses LOTRO as the background for Shiro and Keith's relationship)

So Keith has discovered he doesn’t like not knowing things, and he doesn’t like waiting around. Put these two things together, and you get what he is doing now: sneaking around the super-secret Galra base trying to figure out what’s in the glowing yellow containers. If Shiro knew he was risking his ass, he’d go ballistic, but seeing as Shiro is busy sneaking around a Galra battle-cruiser with one of the last two Alteans alive, Keith figures he can let this one incident slide.

 _Besides_ , he thinks, walking through one of the tunnels, _what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him_.

But as he sneaks into the room full of yellow glowing containers and records it for Coran, he sees something in the corner of the room. Something that makes his blood run cold. He stands from his hiding spot, uncaring if there are any sentries around to see him.

“Shiro?” He calls quietly.

Shiro has his back to him, curled up in a ball, paladin armor torn and helmet nowhere to be seen.

“Shit.” Keith hisses and runs across the room, slowing as he approaches the prone form of his boyfriend. “Shiro? Shiro, what the hell happened, I thought you were on the ship with Allura.”

Shiro lets out a shaky breath and curls up further but doesn’t answer Keith.

Keith kneels behind the Black Paladin’s shaking form and reaches out, placing a hand on Shiro’s arm.

“Hey, come on, Takashi. Talk to me.” Keith leans over to try and see Shiro’s face, but all he sees is a grin filled with sharp teeth.

Keith jumps back as Shiro whirls around, swiping at him with his Galra arm activated. Keith can feel the heat as it passes a few inches from his face.

“What the hell,” he hisses, but then he gets a good look at “Shiro”.

It definitely _looks_ like his boyfriend, but there are some noticeable differences. His eyes are a solid, glowing yellow, like a Galra, and his canines are abnormally sharp. Keith can see them clearly from how Not-Shiro is grinning manically. His Galra arm is also tipped with razor sharp claws, claws that swipe at Keith’s face again. Keith ducks and rolls to the side, unsheathing his bayard and blocking the next downwards swing of Not-Shiro’s arm. He grunts as the blow hits, forcing him back. This guy is strong, maybe stronger than Shiro.

He’s forced into playing defense, blocking the incoming attacks and backing up across the room trying to get back to the door. Not-Shiro had been clever to lure him all the way into the room.

As he nears the door, Not-Shiro kicks out, catching Keith in the ribs and sending him crashing to the side, wind knocked out of him. By the time he stands back up, Not-Shiro has situated himself between Keith and the door.

“Fuck,” He hisses, gripping his side with his free hand. He might have broken a rib.

Not-Shiro hisses a laugh and slashes at Keith again. He pushes him back, up the ramps until they’re fighting along one of the upper catwalks.

“Keith? Keith what’s happening?”

Pidge’s voice comes over his comm while he ducks another too-close blow.

“I need an evac now!” He barks, aiming his own kick at the imposter’s knees. Not-Shiro doesn’t see it in time and only barely manages not to fall off the catwalk. It lets Keith get the tiniest bit of distance, but it’s enough. He turns and grabs one of the yellow containers of quintessence and pulls it down, breaking it and spilling its contents between him and the imposter.

Not-Shiro hisses and jerks away from the liquid, and the Green Lion appears behind Keith. He jumps into its mouth before the imposter can recover.

He looks down and sees him – it? – watching him with a snarl on its lips, but then the lion’s mouth closes, and Keith ducks into the cockpit.

He doesn’t get the time to explain between the ship almost leaving with Real Shiro and Allura, Shiro’s solo return, their fight when Shiro wants to go after her, the battle at Zarkon’s HQ, and trying to find each other on the abandoned sand planet. But while he and Shiro are sitting at the campfire waiting for rescue, he tells his boyfriend about it.

“Another me?” Shiro says, frowning. He turns to stare into the fire, fingers pressing tighter against the wound Haggar had left him with.

“Yeah. He looked just like you. He even had your paladin armor. But there were some differences. He had Galra eyes, and fangs, and claws. Oh, and he tried to kill me. Pretty sure you wouldn’t do that.” Keith tries to tease, but Shiro’s not laughing, still staring at the fire.

“Takashi?”

Shiro looks up at him. “I saw him.”

Keith frowns. “When?”

“During my fight with Haggar. He was there. He had his hand on my throat, almost choked me. I thought it was just one of her hallucinations, but… I _knew_ it felt too real.” Shiro shakes his head slowly. “She always talked about… but I never thought she actually managed to _do_ it…”

“Do what? Talk to me, superman. Tell me what’s going on.” Keith urges, placing a hand on Shiro’s arm.

Shiro glances at him and sighs. “I was the Champion. I was the strongest in the arena, but Haggar, she always thought I was too soft. I wouldn’t go for the kill if I didn’t have to. I remember one time she said… she said if she could remake me, if she could start over, she could make me _better_. Infuse me with Galra genes, add more bloodlust, perhaps. Turn me into what she wanted. I, I guess she managed to do it.”

Keith’s eyes widen. “So that thing, is a clone of you? Amped up on Galra bloodlust?”

“Assumably.”

“Where would she even have gotten your DNA?” Keith asks, then freezes and looks down at Shiro’s right arm.  “Oh god.”

Shiro’s jaw tightens. “I don’t know if I lost my arm in the arena, or if she took it off herself, but if she has it, she has more than enough of my DNA. Enough to make all the clones she wants.”

“I want her dead.” Keith growls.

“Me too, baby. Me too.”

They sit in silence for a moment, but then Keith asks “If, if he came from you, do you think… is there any of you in him at all? Is he at all _human?”_

Shiro sighs and leans his head back on the rock behind him. “I don’t know.”

~*~

After the castle finds them (after Shiro terrifies him with his “If I don’t make it” speech), and after they find and lose Ulaz, they tell the others about Clone Shiro and what to expect.

They don’t see the clone again until what appears to be a routine mission to a small mining moon. They break the Galra’s defenses and land the lions to clear the rest out on foot. Pidge and Lance head to the control center to disable all communications, and Keith, Shiro and Hunk comb through the Galra’s headquarters to dispatch any remaining sentries or Galra soldiers.

He comes out of nowhere.

He seems to emerge from the shadows behind them. He and Shiro don’t even realize anything is amiss until Hunk cries out. They turn to see the Yellow Paladin shooting at a blurry shadow, which is dodging and evading every frantic shot. The figure jumps up and clings to the roof of the hallway, and only then is there enough light cast on him that Keith can see that it’s the clone.

“Oh my god!” Hunk yelps, firing up at the fake Shiro. The clone grins and drops, just as Hunk’s shot hits a giant hanging piece of machinery, causing it to fall and almost crush him and Shiro. He shoves the Black Paladin out of the way and tries to dive for safety but ends up crying out and collapsing to the ground, hissing and looking back to see his ankle and foot trapped under the sparking electronics.

“Keith!” Shiro calls, then grunts as Dark Shiro appears in front of him, roundhouse kicking him in the stomach and sending him crashing against the wall. Hunk tries firing at him, but the slippery bastard is _fast_. He doges all of Hunks attacks and is on the Yellow Paladin before anyone can blink. Keith sees him flash a toothy smile and then activate his Galra arm, slashing down at Hunk.

Hunk has the foresight to lift his bayard to block some of the damage, but it dissipates when the hand comes down, and Hunk’s chest plate ends up cracked, the black bodysuit below ripped, and a long, nasty burn now covers the Yellow Paladin’s chest. Hunk slumps to the ground, and Keith curses.

“Hunk! Goddamn you, you asshole!”

Dark Shiro turns to him and begins advancing, still grinning, but Shiro sneaks up behind him. He is unfortunately alerted to the Black Paladin’s presence by the small sound of his arm heating up, and turns, blocking Shiro’s strike with his own arm. The two of them swing at each other, Shiro managing to doge every attack, but never managing to land one either.

It ends when Hunk groans weakly, unintentionally distracting Shiro enough for the clone to hit him in the stomach, sending him crashing back against the wall.

Keith shouts Shiro’s name, and finally manages to wrench himself free, activating his bayard and lashing out at the unsuspecting clone’s back, cutting him deeply.

Dark Shiro screams, a jarring, inhuman noise, but undeniably the sound of a living creature in pain. Keith almost feels sorry for it. Almost.

The clone snarls at him, but then darts down a hallway and out of sight. Keith can’t pursue with two injured teammates, so he radios Lance and Pidge.

They manage to get Hunk and Shiro back to the castle and into healing pods, and thankfully, both of them will make a full recovery.

He details their encounter with the clone to Allura while sitting in the pod room, Keith leaning up against the one containing his boyfriend.

The princess frowns and glances towards the wall.

“Allura?”

She shakes her head and turns to look at him again.

“This ‘Dark Shiro’ seems to be a very powerful adversary. We must all be cautious if – _when_ we encounter him again.” She sighs and glances up at Shiro’s sleeping face. “Tread carefully, Keith. A Shiro with no morals and Galra bloodlust is a terrifying foe to imagine.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ow, my boys.  
> I love this fic and am writing for it at a reasonably fast pace, so that's awesome. Aside from that, there's not much to say yet except for I am terrible at writing fights and thus the length of my chapters suffer. So I'm sorry for that. But later on the chapters get longer, I swear!


	3. Obsidian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still short (but less so). Still self-indulgent (very much so). Enjoy!

Hunk and Shiro come out just fine, and they sort of forget about the clone for a while. They continue to encounter other Galra, and even Galra generals who put up tough fights, but the clone remains off the radar for a long time. But then, a couple weeks after their encounter, he shows up again on a Galra battle cruiser they’re hijacking.

He manages to get the jump on Keith, who nearly gets electrocuted when Dark Shiro shoves him into an open circuit panel. He slashes at Pidge but she manages to fry him with her bayard and keep him distracted long enough for Keith to disentangle himself and come at the bastard from the side. He disappears at the approach of Shiro and the others. Guess he’s not dumb enough to think he can take them all on at once. Too bad.

He shows up _again_ on an alien planet, when they’re tracking down the source of the vast amount of quintessence the Glara have, and almost tosses Lance off a cliff before Hunk nails him with his Gatling gun.

He just keeps showing up, at random intervals every few missions, with no rhyme or reason as to how or why he comes when he does. They wonder how he can track them down, but then remember how all the ro-beasts have found them, and figure that Haggar must still be tracking them somehow and sending her newest pet out to kill them. They haven’t managed to blow this one up yet, but goddammit, they will. Keith does not want another repeat of the last time they’d encountered the clone, when he’d almost eviscerated Shiro in a cave and left him to die.

He has a strange fixation on Shiro, specifically, which doesn’t really surprise anyone. At one point, they think they’ve killed him for good when he attacks them at a fuel processing plant and a well-timed shot from Lance had the fuel tanks blowing up right behind the clone. They didn’t see him for a while after that, but he came back with a vengeance a month later.

Keith is realty starting to get pissed off. He hates Haggar for making a psycho murderous clone of his boyfriend, and he hates the clone for trying to murder his boyfriend with extreme prejudice.

But, Keith starts to notice something. The clone, he never talks. Ever. Keith would normally say he didn’t need to talk while trying to kill them, but he came off as a guy who’d want to gloat if he was winning, or at least taunt them when he got away, but so far, nothing. He asks Shiro about it one evening after an encounter with said clone.

“You ever notice that Clone You doesn’t talk at all?”

Shiro pauses in peeling out of his undershirt and frowns. “Not until you mentioned it, but you’re right. That seems out of character for someone like him.”

“Right? What’s up with that?”

Shiro shakes his head and finishes removing his shirt, shucking out of his pants as well and ordering the lights off before crawling into bed next to Keith.

“I don’t know.” He murmurs, wrapping an arm around Keith when he snuggles up next to him. “Maybe… maybe he can’t?”

Keith frowns. “You mean, like, he’s mute or something?”

“Maybe. Haggar doesn’t need him to talk, but it could also be that he just… doesn’t know how. Like, perhaps he was never taught to speak, or maybe he was conditioned early on not to.”

Keith huffs and buries his face in Shiro’s neck. “Please stop making me feel sorry for that asshole.”

“It’s not exactly his fault he’s doing this, Keith.” Shiro reminds him gently. “He’s as much a prisoner as I was.”

Keith groans and bites Shiro’s neck. “I wish you hadn’t said that, now I’m going to feel bad when we finally kill him.”

“Just because someone is acting like a monster doesn’t mean they are one.” Shiro murmurs. “Sometimes you have to in order to survive.”

Keith sighs and nuzzles against his boyfriend. “Okay, okay, fine. I’ll remember that next time he tries to _shish kebab you_.”

He means it as sarcasm, he really does. Until he realizes that maybe he didn’t.

~*~

He starts thinking about Dark Shiro a lot. What do they really know about the guy? What if he doesn’t want to attack them, but has to? Or, he just doesn’t know there’s another option? He’s been raised (if he was raised) as Haggar’s toy, his whole existence has been wrapped up in her influence.

Maybe that means he’s evil through and through and there’s no humanity in him at all. But… he came from Shiro. Keith refuses to believe anything about Shiro could be purely evil.

Maybe… maybe all the guy needed was a chance. To be shown there was a choice.

If Keith’s wrong, he can just go back to option A and kill the guy, so what does he have to lose, really?

The next time they encounter the clone, Keith doesn’t attack him right away. He’s cornered and alone, backed up against a wall with Dark Shiro grinning at him, but instead of attacking, he dispels his bayard. Dark Shiro is… very visibly confused by this.

“Hey, I’m not going to attack you, I want to talk.” Keith says slowly, holding his hands up.

The clone is clearly puzzled by this, judging by the very cat-like tilt of his head and accompanying raised eyebrow.

“Look, you’re Shiro’s clone, and I can’t believe anything that came from Shiro is one hundred percent evil, so, I’m willing to hear you out if you hear me out, alright?”

The clone’s brow furrows, and he drops his arm, the glow receding.

“I’m going to take that as a yes. Okay, look, Haggar’s probably the only thing you’ve ever known but she’s insane. She’s really not the best role model in the universe, and I doubt she’s ever given you a choice in what you do. You can’t actually like how things are, can you?”

The clone frowns.

“Right. So, maybe, you don’t actually have to be the monster she wants you to be? Maybe you can have a choice?”

The clone’s frown deepens, and he looks at Keith properly, solid yellow eyes trained on his face. He opens his mouth-

-only to scream as lightning arcs across his throat. Keith yelps and takes a step back as Dark Shiro sinks to his knees, clawing at what Keith can now see is a thick black band around his neck. A collar. A fucking _shock collar_.

Son of a bitch, Shiro was right. He was being forced into this.

The lightning recedes and Dark Shiro is left there, panting harshly and still rubbing his neck, then he glares up at Keith, snarling, and attacks him again. He fights harder than Keith’s ever seen him fight, and he realizes that it’s because of the collar. He manages to lose the clone and find the others, but he waits until he and Shiro are alone to bring up what had happened.

“And then he was screaming because apparently the witch likes to put shock collars on her pets.” Keith growls. “Dammit Takashi, you were right. He didn’t want this shit, she’s _making him attack._ ”

“Negative reinforcement.” Shiro murmurs, frowning and leaning back against the headboard. “If he hesitates, he gets shocked. If he attacks, the pain stops. God, she’s sick.”

“He’s just a thing to her. It’s disgusting.” Keith hisses.

Shiro sighs and looks at him. “Did he look like he was going to hear you out, before she stopped him?”

Keith nods. “I’m sure of it.”

Shiro frowns again and looks to the side.

“What are you thinking, superman?”

“I’m thinking,” Shiro says slowly, “That if we go to Pidge, and if she can figure out how to get that collar off… then maybe he’d be willing to talk.”

“You mean he might turn on Haggar?”

“He seemed open to the suggestion before she shocked him.” Shiro says, looking back at him. “If we can take away that threat, he might be willing to cooperate.”

Keith looks at his boyfriend for a long minute, thinking back to the way the clone had screamed when the collar went off. Still jarring and inhuman, like before, but also still so clearly someone suffering.

“Fuck it,” Keith says, looking Shiro in the eyes. “Let’s give it a shot.”

The next day, they go to the rest of the team and lay out all their observations, their thoughts, and their idea. Pidge is all for it. With some coaxing. Once they bring up the possibility that he could know something about the Holts, she’s sold. Lance and Hunk are wary, but figure it’s worth a shot. Allura hates it.

“I would not trust anything coming out of that creature’s mouth, even if he did talk.” She says, fuming. “Who’s to say Haggar didn’t foresee this, and instruct him to lie to us? To throw us off, or lead us into a trap?”

“I think we should see what it is he has to say first,” Shiro says calmly, not flinching under the princess’s glare, “and then we can determine whether or not the information is reliable. It’s a shot at getting some real intel on Haggar, Allura, I think that’s worth the risk.”

She huffs and crosses her arms but nods a moment later. “Alright, Shiro. We’ll try it your way. But the moment he tries anything, I’m sending him out the airlock.”

Shiro nods. “Fair enough.”

~*~

Pidge and Hunk work on something that will disrupt the collar and test it on various Galra tech to try and gauge if it will work. They seem optimistic, but there’s really no way to be sure until they test it out. And it looks like that time will present itself sooner rather than later.

A week after Keith’s attempted talk with the clone, they encounter him again in a small Galra base attached to a meteor. Keith and Shiro are walking down a hallway on their way to meet up with the others, having dispatched the remaining sentries, when out of the shadows, the clone leaps onto Shiro’s back, sending them both crashing to the ground.

“Shit!” Keith yelps, and starts searching his pockets for the small taser-like device Hunk and Pidge had come up with.

Shiro rolls with the impact and both of them come up on their feet, arms activated and circling each other warily. Keith notices Clone Shiro is wincing every time he put weight on his left leg. He must have gotten in trouble for hesitating. Keith grits his teeth and pulls out the taser, waving it at Shiro to show he’s ready whenever the Black Paladin can distract the clone.

Shiro nods minutely, and then has to block an incoming blow from his clone. As both of their arms are activated, there is a loud electric sound, and both of them are blasted back. Even Keith has to take a step back at the wave of force washing over him. Clone Shiro jumps to his feet, wincing again, and rushes towards Shiro, who is just sitting up, looking dazed.

He blocks another blow, but interestingly, both of their arms are no longer glowing. Keith takes this opportunity to dart forwards, turning on the taser as he moves.

Dark Shiro must hear something, because he turns at the last second. He sees Keith running towards him and looks… almost scared. Like he thinks he’s about to die. Keith’s jaw clenches, and then he shoves the taser against the stupid metal collar around the clone’s neck.

Dark Shiro yelps as the collar sparks once, then the latch opens, and it falls to the floor. He looks down at the scrap of metal on the floor between him and Shiro, eyes wide. Then Keith hits him over the back of the head with his inactive bayard, and he slumps to the ground.

Shiro looks up at him, raising an eyebrow. “You didn’t have to hit him”

Keith shrugs and dispels his bayard. “Figured it would be easier to tote him back to a lion.”

The Black Paladin sighs, but accepts the hand Keith holds out, letting him tug him to his feet. Shiro lifts the clone up over his shoulder, and they make their way back to the lions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love my poor clone babies. I want to gather them all up and cuddle them, but first, I have to hurt them. Alas, the life of a writer. But next chapter has bonding and story time and Kuro being very cat-like.


	4. Jet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello once more, friends.  
> A few messages before we begin to those of you who haven't read anything of mine before: I tend to update fics twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays so you can typically expect new chapters then.  
> Also, a lot of the stories Keith and Shiro are sharing, as well as some references, come from my canon-following behemoth of a fic [Last of the Real Ones](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14416203/chapters/33296517). You don't have to read that in order to enjoy this fic (though I will shamelessly recommend it) but there are a few things you should know, namely: Keith and Shiro started dating before Kerberos, and Keith had an extremely traumatic past that you may be able to piece together from the tags to some degree. He refers to the biggest trauma as The Incident. Shiro knows about his past but at this point in the timeline, no one else does.  
> With those things said, have some interrogation!

Dark Shiro comes to a little while later, after they’ve gotten him into one of the cells in the bowels of the ship. They all watch as the clone’s eyes snap open and he bolts upright on the cot they’d set him on. He nearly flinches at the harsh white light of the castle. He rubs at his eyes, then pauses, dropping a hand to his throat to feel bare skin.

“It’s gone.” Shiro says, and the clone jumps. He looks up to see him, Allura and Keith himself all standing there, watching him. Keith and Shiro have changed back into their casual clothes, but Allura still looks all business, standing straight with hands clasped behind her back.

The clone’s lips pull away from his sharpened teeth and he growls lowly.

“Hush, you are in no position to threaten us.” Allura says sharply. “Tell us what you know of the witch and her plans and we may let you live.”

The clone relaxes slightly, covering his teeth again, but he’s glaring at Allura, and remains silent.

Allura pounds a fist against the glass, making the clone twitch.

“Talk! You have no reason to remain loyal to her now, what could you possibly have to lose?”

“Allura,” Shiro says quietly, “Why don’t you let us try to handle this?”

The princess turns to him and huffs. “Very well. But inform me as soon as you learn anything.”

She storms over to the elevator and crosses her arms, still scowling as the doors slide closed and she is whisked away.

Shiro’s shoulders lose their tenseness and Keith grabs his arm. “You okay?”

Shiro nods and covers his hand with his own. “Yeah, I just knew she wasn’t going to help.” Shiro turns back to face the glass.

“Despite what Allura says, you are safe no matter what you tell us, even if you don’t tell us anything.”

The clone raises a skeptical eyebrow.

“Hey, we didn’t get that collar off you only to put one on you ourselves.” Keith huffs, crossing his arms. “We knew you were in a shitty position and figured you might want to help us out if we got you out of it. If you don’t that’s fine. We’re still better off having taken away one of Haggar’s weapons.”

Dark Shiro flinches and Keith backtracks. “Shit, no, we don’t think of you as a weapon, but, she can’t use you as one anymore. It’s good for you and us.”

The clone looks at Keith for a long moment, then nods once.

“Cool. Okay, you’re turn, I’m all out of diplomacy.” Keith claps Shiro on the shoulder and sinks to the ground, leaning up against the glass.

Shiro huffs, then looks back up at his clone. “We’re asking for your help. Anything you can tell us about Haggar, or the Druids, or the empire would be extremely helpful, even if it seems minor, it may help us out a great deal.”

Dark Shiro blinks at Shiro slowly, but still says nothing.

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to,” Shiro reiterates, “but we would really appreciate it.”

Still nothing. Dark Shiro yawns.

Keith sighs and tugs at Shiro’s pant leg. “Leave it for now, Shirogane. If he’s gonna talk, I don’t think it will be tonight.”

Shiro sighs and nods, uncrossing his arms. “You’re probably right.” He looks up at Dark Shiro again. “Take your time. If you do decide to talk to us, we’ll be ready to listen.”

He holds out a hand to Keith then, but the Red Paladin shakes his head. “Nah, come down here.”

Shiro raises an eyebrow. “Don’t you want to go back upstairs?”

Keith shrugs. “Seems kind of rude to leave him down here all by himself.”

“Fair point.”

“And besides,” Keith grins, “Lance and Allura are up there. I will _gladly_ hang out down here with Dark Shiro rather than deal with them.”

His boyfriend gives him a reproachful look but sits down when Keith prompts him again. Keith grins and nudges Shiro with his arm. “See? Much better option.”

“If you say so, baby.” The Black Paladin sighs, nudging him back. Keith hisses at the contact, and Shiro is instantly on high alert.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Keith sighs, rubbing at the spot high on his ribs that his arm had nudged. “Just, one of the sentries nailed me pretty good before I killed it.”

“It shot you?”

“Nah, just hit me. It smarts a little, but it’s not that bad.”

“Let me see.” Shiro asks quietly.

“It’s nothing, really.”

“Keith, please let me see.”

Keith looks his boyfriend in the eyes for a long moment, then sighs, hiking up his t-shirt.

Shiro hisses, reaching out with his human fingers to brush over the large bruise that’s forming, and even that has Keith flinching.

“It’s definitely going to be there a while.” Shiro tells him.

“Yeah, I expected as much.” Keith shrugs and lets his shirt fall back into place.

“Do you need a healing pod?”

He snorts. “Hardly. This is far from the worst I’ve ever been hurt, Shiro.”

Shiro grimaces, and his fingers instead brush over the bend of his waist. “I know.”

“None of that,” Keith chides, clutching Shiro’s hand in his own and lacing their fingers together. “I’m okay, now, Shiro. You know I am.”

“I know,” Shiro murmurs, clutching Keith’s hand a little tighter.

“You don’t have to treat me like a porcelain doll every time I get hurt. I’m a lot tougher than I look.” Keith teases, and Shiro smiles.

“I’m well aware of that, baby. You’re the strongest person I know.”

“Almost as strong as you.” Keith says, leaning against Shiro’s side. They’re quiet for a minute, then Keith snickers. “Hey,”

“Yeah?”

“Remember that day in my shack, when you accidentally told a sex joke and freaked out?”

Shiro groans, but he’s smiling.

“You were so panicked about setting me off, from something as innocent as a blowjob joke, it was _precious_.” Keith giggles. “And I think it still took me forever to convince you I wasn’t going to break after that. In fact, I’m apparently still having to remind you.”

“From time to time.” Shiro leans his head back against the glass and smiles. “Speaking of back then, you remember the day at the water park?”

Keith snorts and uses his free hand to toy absently with the bead around his neck. “Don’t think I could ever _forget_ that day.”

“Yeah.” Shiro looks over at him. “You were so happy and relaxed. I’d never seen you like that before. Or since.”

Keith raises an eyebrow.

“Okay,” Shiro corrects, faint blush rising to his cheeks. “I haven’t seen you that relaxed and happy very many times since. Especially not since we’ve come out here.”

“Okay, that’s fair. But in my defense, it’s hard to be relaxed and happy while fighting a universal war ten thousand years in the making.”

“Very true. All I’m saying is, I start getting worried about you when you get so tense. When you get tense and stressed, your nightmares tend to get worse. And when that happens, I do tend to worry about you more.”

“I know.” Keith murmurs, “But at least one of my stresses is fairly moot now.” He tilts his head back towards the cell behind them, and Shiro nods.

“Fair enough.”

“Hey, speaking of which,” Keith says lightly, turning his head, “Feel free to chime in if you have something to- holy shit!” Keith jolts when he realizes that Dark Shiro is sitting right up against the glass, looking at him curiously.

Shiro’s head whips around, and he too startles at the realization that the clone had been so close.

“When did you move?” Keith wheezes, frantically trying to get his heartbeat back under control. “Fuck, you move like a damn shadow.”

Dark Shiro smirks and, is that, purring?

Shiro huffs a laugh. “Seems like he was enjoying our stories.”

The clone hesitates, but nods once. Shiro raises an eyebrow. He clearly hadn’t expected confirmation.

“Well, if he likes stories,” Keith says slowly, turning so he’s half facing the glass and can keep an eye on the silent little shit, “then we have plenty more where that came from. You wanna hear about what happened _in_ the water park? Like how Shiro ended up almost naked in the middle of a public space?”

Dark Shiro’s eyes light up and he nods eagerly.

“Keith, _no_ ,” Shiro groans, but he’s clearly fighting a smile.

“Keith, yes.” Keith says, sticking his tongue out, then proceeds to tell the clone about the wave pool.

Shiro retaliates by telling him about Keith’s eternal battle with physics homework, which leads to them telling him how they met, which leads to stories about the Garrison.

“And Iverson turns around, and he says, ‘if I ever find out who is responsible for this, I’ll send them to fucking Pluto’. And then after he leaves, Matt turns to me, grinning, and says ‘too late, we’re already going’.”

Keith snickers uncontrollably. Even Dark Shiro is smirking. “You _never_ told me about this!” He accuses his grinning boyfriend.

“I had to be a good example for you. If you found out Matt and I got up to crazy shenanigans, there’d be no stopping you.”

“This is a very good point.”

Shiro stretches and looks around. “How long have we been down here?”

Keith contemplates this for a moment. “At least a couple hours.”

Shiro sighs and stands. “We need to go to bed.” He holds out a hand for Keith, who sighs heavily, but takes it.

Shiro looks down at his clone. “We have to go, but we’ll be back tomorrow. Sleep well.”

Dark Shiro tilts his head and nods. He’s still watching them as they ascend in the elevator. When they crawl in bed not long after, Keith drapes himself across Shiro’s torso.

“I like him.”

Shiro looks down at him, raising an eyebrow. His fingers continue combing gently through Keith’s hair. “Thought you were still mad at him for almost killing me?”

Keith shrugs and tucks his nose against Shiro’s neck. “Kinda, but I can kick his ass for that later. Right now, he sort of reminds me of how I was, after The Incident.”

Shiro’s fingers stop moving.

“Shh,” Keith mutters, biting Shiro’s neck. “Really though, I was surly and hostile and didn’t want to talk to anyone because I didn’t know who I could trust. I get where he’s coming from. I can’t help but like him.”

“I like him too.” Shiro says, kissing the top of Keith’s head. “I hope we can help him.”

“Me too, Takashi.”

~*~

For the next few days, they spend a lot of time down by Dark Shiro’s (Shiro dislikes the moniker, but can’t think of anything better) cell, talking to him and telling him stories of their own lives. Keith omits a lot of his, but Shiro isn’t surprised, so he’s the one who tells stupid family stories, like the one time his sisters brought home a coyote puppy thinking it was just a dog.

His clone is always rapt with attention, yellow eyes wide and attentive every time they open their mouths. Shiro guesses he never had much interaction as Haggar’s slave, so listening to more than growling and threats and screams must be a nice change of pace. But the longer they spend with the clone, the more Shiro worries. He’s still never said a word. Still never made any noise aside from growling or on occasion, laughing or purring. It makes Shiro wonder.

It’s a thought he brings up to Keith, about a week after the clone was captured. They’d been talking about a recent mission that had been innocuous enough that they could risk talking about it in front of Dark Shiro. The clone had been listening closely as usual, sprawled across the tiny bunk in the cell that served as his bed. When Shiro glances up to check on their “guest”, he finds the clone’s eyes are shut, and his shoulders are rising and falling steadily.

Keith snorts. “I feel like we just told him a bedtime story.”

Shiro hums noncommittally, watching his clone for a long minute, before leaning against Keith’s side. His boyfriend curls up against him easily and looks up at him with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s up?”

“It’s just,” Shiro begins quietly, “it’s been a week, Keith. And he has yet to say a word. Even if he doesn’t want to tell us about Haggar, you’d think he would have said _something_ by now.”

Keith’s brow furrows. “Yeah, I guess.”

“It just makes me wonder.” Shiro murmurs. He pauses for a long moment, then sighs. “It makes me wonder if he can even speak at all.”

“I can fucking talk.” A voice rasps behind them, and they both jump.

Shiro turns and sees his clone blinking at them slowly. Apparently, he had not been quite as asleep as Shiro had thought.

Keith is still tensed like a startled cat, so it’s Shiro who responds. “So why haven’t you?”

The clone shrugs and sits up. “I was waiting.”

“For?” Keith chokes out.

“To see if you were telling the truth, about not doing anything to me if I didn’t talk.”

“We were.” Shiro says. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

“I’m getting that impression.” The clone tilts his head to the side, regarding them for a long minute. “I don’t think you two, at least, would torture me or anything.”

Keith recoils. “Ugh, no. Honestly I don’t think any of us would.”

The clone raises an eyebrow. “That princess of yours might.”

“I don’t think she has the stomach for it.”

“No one is torturing anyone.” Shiro says firmly. “Whether or not you want to tell us anything. That I swear to you.”

Dark Shiro nods. “Okay.”

Shiro blinks. “Okay?”

The clone shrugs and stretches back out on the cot. “Yeah, I’ll talk. I have no loyalty for the witch, so I’ll tell you whatever.”

Keith leans back on his hands. “Well that was easy.”

“Keith,”

“What?” Keith grins at him then looks back at the clone. “Hey, so I have a couple questions, not related to Haggar, but about you.”

Dark Shiro raises an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I’ve been wondering, since you came from Shiro’s DNA and all, if there’s any similarity aside from your looks.”

“I’ll admit to being curious myself.” Shiro says. “I wonder, for instance, if you have any of my memories. Or even sort of impressions of familiarity, since you seemed inclined to listen to Keith rather than attack him when he tried to talk to you.”

Dark Shiro shakes his head. “No, I did that because he was the first one who tried, and it threw me for a tick. All I got from you was this,” he gestures at himself, “and the witch’s expectations. I don’t have your memories or personality or anything like that.”

Shiro nods. He’d figured as much. “Well, do you have a name at least?”

The clone snorts. “Dark Shiro, apparently.”

Keith laughs. “Yeah, well, it’s appropriate. Or it was. But we can’t keep calling you that, it’s stupid as hell.”

“At least you realize that.” Shiro sighs. Keith nudges him and grins.

“Okay, well, we need to call you something for the time being. We can’t keep referring to you as just ‘the clone’ because that’s insulting. So.” Keith frowns for a moment. “What about, Kuro?”

Shiro can’t help it. He bursts out laughing. “Keith!”

“What? It’s appropriate.” Keith says, poking Shiro’s arm. “Tell me it’s not.”

“I don’t get the joke.” The clone deadpans, and Shiro stifles his giggles, wiping at his eyes.

“Shiro means white in Japanese, my first language.” Shiro explains. “Kuro means black.”

The clone considers this for a moment, then grins, showing off his sharp canines. “I can appreciate that.”

“Alright, it’s settled.” Keith says, nodding. “Nice to meet you, Kuro. I’m Keith Kogane. I’d shake your hand, but, you know, glass.”

The clone – Kuro – rolls his eyes. “Yeah, got it.”

“And I’m Takashi Shirogane.” Shiro adds, amused.

“Then where did Shiro come from?” Kuro asks.

“It’s a nickname, taken from my last name.”

Kuro tilts his head like he doesn’t quite understand but nods.

They tell him they’ll be back in the morning to start asking about Haggar and then they go up to bed. Shiro remains awake for a while, contemplating. Having a clone is not the strangest thing that’s happened to him. He has an identical twin at home so it’s not as jarring as it could have been, but it would seem that the clone- that _Kuro’s_ personality differs greatly from his own, which Shiro thinks is a good thing. It means he can be his own person. He hopes that in time, Kuro can become more than the weapon Haggar created him to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love fanon Kuro. So, so much.  
> Next chapter includes some Q&A and Kuro being a curious kitty. Have a good start to your week!


	5. Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Here's some Q&A (of various sorts) and awkward fluff.

The next morning, they inform the others that Kuro (they all laugh at the name, but Keith stands by it, and Shiro will support him) is finally talking, and has agreed to share what he knows. Allura immediately storms down to the cell to start grilling the clone, but all he does is blink at her slowly and raise an eyebrow.

“I thought you said he was talking!” Allura snaps after the fifth failed attempt to get Kuro to talk.

“He is.” Shiro says, rubbing his temples in frustration. “But you’re treating this like it’s an interrogation.”

“It _is_ an interrogation.” The princess huffs, crossing her arms.

“Uh, no, it’s not.” Keith says, crossing his own arms and glaring at the princess. “He’s giving up the information willingly. You’re still trying to treat him like an enemy.”

“He _is_ an enemy.” Allura spits and Shiro sighs.

“Allura, just… let us handle this, okay? Clearly he’s not going to talk to you, but he seems alright talking to us,” he glances behind her and locks eyes with Kuro. “Right?”

Kuro nods.

“Right, so just let us handle this? Please?”

Allura huffs and storms passed them, towards the elevator. “I hope this is quiznacking worth it.” She mutters, before the elevator closes and she’s whisked away.

“I don’t like her.” Kuro says, leaning back on his arms. “She’s kind of a bitch.”

“She’s not-” Shiro starts, right as Keith says “Yep.”

Shiro gives his boyfriend an irritated look but Keith just shrugs. “She kinda is, Takashi, at least on occasion.”

Shiro sighs and takes his usual seat on the floor in front of Kuro’s cell, Keith following him down.

“So, what do you wanna know?” Kuro drawls, looking down at them, yellow eyes seemingly glowing faintly from this angle.

Shiro pulls out a tablet and sets it down on the ground, turning on the auto-dictation feature, then looks back at Kuro. “Tell us about the druids. Their abilities, and fighting styles, and if Haggar differs.”

So that’s how he and Keith spend their day, asking questions and recording Kuro’s answers. They learn a lot about how the druids operate and how Haggar does her experiments. And they find out how Shiro lost his arm. Shiro wishes he hadn’t asked if they’d lost it the same way.

This continues for several days. Every evening they surrender the pad to Pidge’s eager hands and she adds the information to their Galra database. It makes their next few missions a little easier and they’re all grateful for it. Even Allura has to admit the information is good. He can’t tell them about troop movements, but he can tell them enough that it makes a difference.

After a week, Kuro stops them when they’re getting ready to leave.

“So,” he says hesitantly, and Shiro and Keith turn back to them. “When you’ve got all you need, and I can’t tell you anymore… what’re you gonna do with me? Because, honestly, I’m about tapped out.”

Shiro exchanges a look with Keith, and they have a long, silent conversation. They’d talked about this before, late at night in their bed. What _were_ they going to do when Kuro had no more information to give?

Keith nods, and Shiro turns back to Kuro’s cell, punching a code into the panel next to the sheet of glass, and stepping back as it slides open.

Kuro blinks at the open space in surprise. “I… huh?”

“We’re not going to do anything to you.” Shiro says quietly. “You’re free to go, if you want. We can drop you off anywhere you want to go.”

Kuro stands and walks towards the open doorway, hesitating before he’s fully out of the cell. “I don’t really have anywhere to go.” He says. “I wouldn’t even know where to start. I don’t… I don’t have anything.”

Keith walks over and stands in front of the clone, raising an eyebrow. “Then you can stay here with us.”

Kuro’s eyes widen. “I, you’d let me stay?”

Keith rolls his eyes. “Duh. If you want to stay, I don’t see why you can’t.”

“Your princess probably won’t like it.”

“She doesn’t speak for all of us.” Shiro says, placing a hand on his clone’s shoulder, and the other man startles at the contact. “If you want to stay, then stay.”

“I don’t… I mean…” Kuro is clearly at a loss for words.

“Hey,” Shiro murmurs, squeezing his shoulder. “It’s your choice. No one is going to make you decide one way or another.”

“I’ve never really… had a choice before. About anything.” Kuro whispers.

“Then let’s make it simple.” Keith says, placing his own hand on Kuro’s other shoulder. “All you have to say is yes or no. Do you want to stay?”

Kuro is quiet for a long moment, tense under their hands, but very slowly, he relaxes.

“Yes.”

~*~

Allura hates it. Vehemently. She wants to toss Kuro out an airlock now that he’s “worn out his usefulness” but Keith yells at her for a long time about how Kuro’s just as much a prisoner as Shiro ever was and does she want to toss Shiro out the airlock too for good measure? They did similar things under Haggar’s control, after all.

Allura promptly clicks her jaw shut.

“Fine.” She says, bristling. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you when one of us wakes up with that hand around our throats.”

“Duly noted.” Keith drawls, and Kuro snickers behind him. Shiro rolls his eyes.

The others are wary, but less hostile about it than Allura is. Pidge ends up doing something to all the locks of the Lion’s hangars and the bridge so that Kuro can’t access them on his own, but it doesn’t seem like he even notices this. He mostly wanders around and looks in various rooms. He likes the training deck a lot and even asks if he can spar with Keith once. He ends up on the floor, and Shiro is a proud boyfriend.

“That was for nearly killing Shiro.” Keith huffs as Kuro groans on the ground.

For the most part though, he follows Keith and Shiro around. It’s kind of cute, like he’s an overly attached puppy. Keith thinks it’s amusing, and Shiro has the suspicion that it’s because he and Keith are the only ones who’ve ever been nice to the man in his entire existence. Whatever the clone’s reasoning, he enjoys trailing behind the Black and Red Paladins and listening to them banter back and forth playfully. When they’re on the bridge, Kuro will settle himself down next to one of their chairs and lean against it, either dozing off or watching what they do idly.  

Something the pair of them notice quickly in those first couple of days is that the clone enjoys asking questions. If one of them says something he doesn’t get, he’ll immediately pipe up with a “who’s that?” or “what does that mean?” Neither of them mind, but Kuro seems to think they do, because on the third day of the clone’s liberation from his cell, he fidgets on the floor in front of the sofa in the lounge (Kuro seems to have an aversion to actually sitting _on_ chairs or couches) and rubs the back of his neck.

“Sorry if I’m asking too many questions.” He mutters quietly.

“What? No, you’re fine.” Shiro assures.

“Well, just tell me if it bugs you. I’ve never just been able to… ask shit, before. Whenever I talked back to the witch, she’d, well,” he gestures at his neck, where the burns from the shock collar are still visible. “So, it’s kinda nice, knowing I can talk without fear of pain.”

Keith tenses next to him and Shiro looks over to see his boyfriend bristling in fury. “That’s sick.” The Red Paladin murmurs. “She’s sick. Hell yes, ask us shit. Ask us whatever the hell you want. We’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

Which opens up a whole new line of questioning wherein Kuro practically interrogates them about their personal lives. Shiro is, as usual, an open book, but Keith…

“Okay, remember how I said we’d tell you whatever? Well, I’m… I don’t really want to talk about my past. At all. And not just with you, but with _anyone_. So, sorry.” Keith says awkwardly when Kuro asks him about where he grew up. Kuro cocks his head to the side (he really does remind Shiro of a puppy, or maybe a housecat that’s very particular about who it likes) and furrows his brow, but nods.

“Okay. Then tell me more about that… Garrison… place.”

Keith’s shoulders relax, and he proceeds to tell Kuro how (but not why) he came to the Garrison.

They learn a lot about Kuro through these Q&A sessions. He’s very blunt and has zero filter, but he’s always straightforward. Shiro wonders if the other man could lie to save his life. He doesn’t seem to grasp the concept, or the concept of personal space. Keith and Shiro don’t mind (Keith makes sure to mention his aversion to touch, but Kuro just shrugs and sits next to him without contact), but his habit of just showing up without a sound leads to one of their more… interesting conversations.

It's been a long day and all Shiro wants is to find his boyfriend and go to bed. He finds Keith in the hallway outside the training deck. He’d clearly just gone a few rounds with the gladiators and sweat is beginning to soak through his shirt. As Shiro approaches, Keith heaves a sigh and wipes his brow, shaking out his hair and god, he just looks so _good_.

Keith looks up and smiles and that settles Shiro’s course of action as he speeds up his approach towards the other man.

“Hey, superman, I was just coming to find y-”

Keith’s last word is cut off when Shiro grabs his cheeks gently and presses their lips together. Keith hums and wraps his arms around Shiro’s shoulders, seemingly content to let the Black Paladin do as he pleases.

“Well,” Keith purrs when Shiro pulls away, “what was that for?”

“You’re just so goddamn beautiful,” Shiro murmurs, and kisses Keith again.

“I’m sweaty and gross, Shiro.” Keith giggles as Shiro leans back to kiss his nose.

“Yeah. Beautiful.”

He turns Keith and presses him back against the wall, then kisses him again. Keith hums and lets his muscles go lax, content to stay where they are for the time being. Shiro loses himself in the kiss, as he is inclined to do when it comes to Keith. Keith makes a tiny, pleased noise and runs his hands down Shiro’s back, lifting the hem of his shirt to splay his fingers over Shiro’s bare skin. Hm, maybe he’s not as tired as he initially thought…

“Uh,”

Shiro startles and Keith yelps, slapping a hand over his mouth and turning to glare at Kuro, who’s standing surprisingly close and looking at them curiously, head tilted, and one eyebrow cocked.

“Seriously, we need to put a damn bell on you!” Keith grumbles from behind his hand.

Shiro sighs and straightens. “Did you need something, Kuro?”

Kuro frowns. “I was coming to say ‘night, but… what was that you were doing?”

“What?”

Kuro gestures at them. “ _That_. The mouth thing. What was that?”

Keith raises an eyebrow of his own. “You mean… kissing?”

“The hell is that?”

Keith’s jaw drops and even Shiro is a little stunned.

“You know what?” Keith pats Shiro’s chest. “This one’s all yours, superman. Good luck.”

Shiro sighs and crosses his arms, turning to face his clone.

“Kissing is… well, it’s something you do when you love someone. It’s, as you saw, pressing your lips against the other person’s skin. You can kiss someone anywhere, but the most common kind of kiss is pressing your lips together. There are also forehead kisses, cheek kisses, and so on.”

As if to demonstrate, Keith leans in and kisses his cheek. Shiro waves at his face and shrugs. “Like that.”

“Shiro is a big fan of forehead kisses.” Keith hums. “I love it.”

Kuro’s brow furrows. “Love…?”

“Oh for god’s sake, I’m going to skewer Haggar next time our paths cross.” Keith mutters.

“You really don’t know what love is?” Shiro asks quietly.

Kuro shakes his head. “I take it that’s a big issue?”

“It’s…” Shiro’s jaw tenses. “It makes me very sad.”

Kuro makes a small whining noise. “I’m sorry,”

“Don’t be,” Keith says, waving him off. “It’s not your fault Haggar is the universe’s biggest bitch.”

“Love is,” Shiro hesitates, looking over at Keith. “Well, to put it extremely simply, love is putting someone else’s needs above your own, sometimes even at the cost of your own wellbeing, or happiness.” He looks back at Kuro, who is understandably stunned.

“There are several different types.” Shiro goes on. “Familial love is what you feel towards a parent or sibling or your own child. The need to protect and watch over them. There is friend love, which is close to familial love, but you feel it towards someone who isn’t actually blood related to you.” He places a hand on Keith’s shoulder, rubbing little circles into his skin with his thumb. “What Keith and I feel for each other is romantic love. Romantic love is when you want to spend the rest of your life with that person. We want to kiss and cuddle and be as close to each other as possible all the time. You really only kiss someone on the lips if you love them romantically. Hence Keith and I doing it.”

 “I trust Shiro.” Keith murmurs, and Shiro tightens his hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder. “I don’t trust anyone, but I trust him. I trust him not to hurt me, even when I’m vulnerable, physically or emotionally. I tell him things I’ve never told anyone and know he would never breathe a word of it to anyone else.  I trust him with my heart and soul. That’s what love is to me.”

Kuro is quiet for a long moment, contemplating. Shiro hopes he explained it all okay.

“So,” Kuro begins slowly, looking back up at them after having stared at the floor for a while. “You two… you’re closer to each other than anyone else? You… you protect each other?”

“Yes.” Shiro says.

“We care about each other more than our own lives.” Keith says firmly. “That’s the long and the short of it.”

Kuro is quiet again, looking between them slowly. “Huh. Never seen anything like that before. The way I’ve lived, it seems ridiculous. No one was gonna look out for you except yourself. Trying to protect someone else was practically suicide. But…”

He smiles, just a little. “I gotta say, I think I like your way better. Safety in numbers, pack mentality, and all that.”

“It’s more than that.” Shiro tells him.

“We don’t love every other human or alien or whatever in existence. We choose who is important to us, and those are the people we will die to protect.” Keith says. “Like you.”

Kuro falters at that. “I, what?”

“We care about you, Kuro.” Shiro murmurs, resting a hand on his clone’s shoulder. “I thought you knew that.”

“I, I didn’t.” Kuro stammers, looking between them like a startled cat. “But, I think… I think I might just care about you guys too.”

“Damn straight you do,” Keith grins. Kuro can’t help but grin back, and Shiro smiles, shoulders relaxing.

He thinks this might have helped something, in the long run. Maybe now his clone will feel safer, knowing the Red and Black Paladins care about him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to explain kissing and love was an adventure. I hope I did okay. Up next comes more fluff then some angst, but that's to be expected when dealing with "evil" clones, isn't it?
> 
> Also, I have a tumblr dedicated to my Sheith writing if any of you want to come say hello! Find me at [sheith-writes](https://sheith-writes.tumblr.com/). See you Sunday!


	6. Charcoal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry this is slightly late but have some humor followed by a heavy dose of angst.
> 
> WARNING for mentions of rape/non-con in this chapter. Nothing is described in detail but it is discussed. It's towards the very end of the chapter so please be careful reading!

It’s been two weeks since Kuro has started wandering the castle. He still refuses to speak in front of anyone but Keith and Shiro, but Keith has a hunch that at this point, it’s just to fuck with them. The others are slowly getting used to seeing Shiro’s dark twin wandering around and no longer think he’s about to stab them in the back or punch a hole through their middles.

They never bat an eye when he wanders onto the bridge, and even when he comes to hover over their shoulders and examine their screens, all they give is a curious look or a raised eyebrow.

It’s fucking hilarious, the first time he decides to talk in front of them.

Kuro has been sitting next to Shiro’s chair but seems to be getting bored the longer the Black Paladin just reads over battle notes, so instead, the clone gets up and stands over Pidge’s chair instead.

The girl looks up at him for a moment before going back to whatever science shit she’d been doing. Kuro leans closer, brow furrowing as he tries to follow the movements of her fingers on the screen and the rapid scrolling of words.

“What are you doing?” He asks, and Pidge screeches.

Everyone who is not Keith and Shiro turns to stare in shock at the clone, who is blinking slowly down at Pidge, head cocked to the side.

“I, you…” She starts, but then shakes her head, glancing over to Shiro, who just shrugs and keeps reading.

Pidge glances up at the clone again. “You… actually want to know what I’m doing.” She says slowly.

Kuro nods.

“Well,” She says hesitantly, bringing up another window. “I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to strengthen the castle’s shields. They really took a beating during that last mission.”

“I noticed.” Kuro says drily. “So how would you do that?”

“Well that’s the thing, I’m not sure. There aren’t exactly any Altean scientists around that I can ask so I’m doing as much research as possible to try and understand how it’s built so I can safely take it apart.”

She continues to babble on in science terms that Keith can’t follow and he’s pretty sure Kuro can’t either, but the man seems attentive to what the Green Paladin is saying. Eventually, she just starts muttering to herself, so Kuro drifts back over to Shiro’s chair, sitting with his back to the side of it again and staring blankly out the huge windows. He makes a strange chirping noise when Shiro’s human hand drops to pet through his hair gently. Kuro tenses for all of a moment before he relaxes into the touch and begins purring (and oh god had Keith had a field day when the pair of them realized they could get Kuro to do that).

“Proud of you,” Shiro murmurs, scratching his nails against Kuro’s scalp and making the clone absolutely melt.

“You’re ridiculous, Shirogane,” Kuro mutters, but seeing as he continues to press up into Shiro’s hand like an eager cat, the words lose their bite.

“See? That’s what I keep saying!” Keith says, beaming over at his boyfriend and their… whatever Kuro is. He’s theirs, Keith knows that much.

After that incident, Kuro begins talking to the others, and they keep being shocked when it happens to them.

Take Hunk. The first time Kuro speaks directly to him is during dinner one night. Hunk had called it a new “pasta” dish, but the noodles are thin, rubbery tentacles. Kuro eyes his dish suspiciously and pokes at one tentacle that’s hanging over the side of the bowl.

“Are you sure you’re not trying to just poison me and get it over with?” He asks the Yellow Paladin, raising an eyebrow.

Hunk chokes on his own tentacle-noodles, staring at the clone.

“I, no! No it’s perfectly edible!” He squeaks out.

Kuro frowns down at his bowl again, then glances at Keith and Shiro, who are both sitting to his left, and who are diligently eating their own portions. He glances back up at Hunk and nods once.

“Alright, but if I puke my guts up later, I’m blaming you.” He says, then begins to eat.

Hunk had kept muttering “please don’t get food poisoning please don’t get food poisoning” for the rest of the evening.

Kuro did not get food poisoning and instead corners their resident chef the following morning, asking him to make the dish again.

“It was surprisingly really good.” Kuro tells him.

“I, yeah, sure,” Hunk stammers, but he’s smiling.

Lance literally screams the first time Kuro speaks to him. But to be fair, Kuro had snuck up behind the Blue Paladin and whispered in his ear.

“Whatcha doin’?” Kuro hisses and Lance jumps a fucking mile.

“Holy bajeezus and the saints amen!” Lance shrieks, plastering himself against the closest wall.

Kuro bursts out laughing, clutching at his stomach as he doubles over. Keith is in a very similar state, clutching the back of his seat. He always enjoys freaking Lance out and thankfully Kuro seems to be of a similar mind.

They get a warning glare from Shiro but ignore it in favor of holding each other up while continuing to laugh hysterically.

“Dude, don’t do that!” Lance whines, clutching his chest and glaring at Kuro. “You could give a guy a heart attack! I look over expecting to see Shiro and I get met with the glowy eyes of doom!”

Kuro smirks and then sticks out his tongue in a very mature move. Keith however is puzzled. Kuro and Shiro sound nothing alike. Shiro’s voice is soft, smooth and calm and steady. Kuro’s voice is rougher, raspier, with more of a bite. He would never confuse the two.

Keith was jolted back to the moment as Kuro clapped him on the shoulder. “Hope that made your day, Kogane.”

Keith looked up at him in surprise. “You freaked Lance out for me?”

Kuro blinked slowly, cocking his head to the side. “Well yeah. I know you like to get a rise out of him.”

Lance made another protest, but Keith was weirdly touched.

“I, thanks.”

Kuro had shrugged and walked off, waving a hand in dismissal. “My pleasure.”

Coran was the only one who didn’t really react.

Kuro has been following the older Altean around all day, looking more and more puzzled by the second.

“Hey old man,” He’d said finally.

Coran turns around, clearly startled.

“Ah, Kuro my boy, I didn’t see you! Keith is right, you move more quietly than a Shilvarian Narlak! What did you need?”

Kuro looks baffled for all of three seconds before shaking his head to clear it. “I yeah, so, what do you actually do around here? Like the humans are here to fly the damn lions and Princess Perfect is here to fly the castle that houses the lions, but I can’t really figure out what you do?”

Coran beams. “A bit of everything I suppose! I’m the castle’s mechanic and doctor, and I also man the weapons systems during combat! Or I used to, you were rather adept at that during our last mission, as I recall!”

“So you’re a multitasker.” Kuro says, tilting his head.

“I suppose that’s one way of saying it.” Coran had chuckled. “Really though, I do whatever is needed. I suppose the best title one could give me would be a handyman! But I’m not complaining, it’s a noble task, providing support for the Paladins of Voltron.”

“I guess so.” Kuro had said, glancing over at Keith and Shiro with a perplexing look.

Allura is an interesting encounter.

She keeps saying Kuro is going to turn on them, she’d nearly had a heart attack when he’d taken the weapons controls during their last battle, even though he’d ended up saving Pidge’s ass. She’s exceedingly vocal about her distrust of the Galra clone.

“Everything the Galra touch turns to poison.” Allura spits, glaring daggers at Kuro. “The clone is no different.”

As a result, the first time Kuro ever speaks to her is equally vitriolic.

“Well I guess you’d know poison, princess, since you seem to be spitting it all the damn time.” Kuro purrs in a sickly-sweet voice. “Maybe you and I should compare notes; find out which one of us really has the most venom.”

Allura flushes red in anger, glares at Kuro for several more seconds, then storms off the bridge.

“I’ll call that my win.” Kuro says, smirking at the closed door.

Shiro sighs and looks over to where Kuro is leaning against Keith’s chair. “I’m sorry about her, but she’ll learn sooner or later that you’re not the monster Haggar tried to make you.”

Kuro flinches at the Black Paladin’s words, curling into a tighter ball. “Nah, she’s not wrong to mistrust me. Doesn’t mean I have to be quiet while she’s doing it.”

“You haven’t tried to kill us so far.” Keith mutters. Then, at Kuro’s disbelieving look, he clarifies “Since we got that stupid collar off you. You haven’t done one aggressive thing since. Aside from make scathing comments, but to be fair, Pidge and I do that too.”

Kuro huffs but leans against the Red Paladin’s chair again, seemingly content to let the matter lie for the time being.

~*~

All in all, the few months since Kuro’s arrival have been interesting ones. He keeps asking Shiro and Keith questions and they still answer them, even the weird ones. None have been as awkward as the kissing question however.

Well, until now.

Shiro has once again cornered him and pinned him to the wall, kissing down his throat and nipping at his pulse point. Keith hums and runs his fingers through the Black Paladin’s hair.

“Beautiful,” Shiro murmurs, pressing a kiss to his jaw, “perfect,” a kiss to his cheek, “amazing,” finally a kiss to his lips.

Keith sighs into the kiss and tightens his grip in Shiro’s hair, making the older pilot groan.

“Takashi, I want you to take me back to our room, and I want you to fuck me into the mattress,” Keith murmurs against Shiro’s mouth.

“Gladly.”

But before they can do that…

“What the fuck?”

Keith yelps, gripping Shiro’s shoulders as he practically jumps out of his skin. “That’s it! Next planet we stop at, I am getting you a fucking bell!”

Shiro laughs quietly then turns to face their intruder.

“Yes, Kuro?”

Kuro is looking at them, expression bewildered and a little upset.

“Hey, what’s up?” Keith asks.

“I,” Kuro starts, then swallows heavily. “I thought you guys cared about each other?”

Keith’s brow furrows. “Uh, we do.”

“Then, why would you fuck each other?” Kuro asks haltingly, looking disturbed.

Oh no. Keith’s stomach clenches. Oh no, that, that does not bode well. Shiro apparently senses it as well because he releases Keith, stepping away and letting the smaller man move farther from the wall, looking intently at his dark twin.

“Why would us having sex mean we don’t care about each other?” He asks slowly, but they both already know, even before Kuro opens his mouth.

The clone tells them about the hierarchy of the prisons, how violence was expected, even necessary if you wanted to remain on top, where it was safe. And sometimes being “on top” was literal. Kuro explains, very nonchalantly, that rape was exceedingly common in the Galra prison where he lived. It was a powerplay, taking your victim’s dignity and crushing it in front of dozens of other spectators. The physical pain it caused was a major bonus.

Keith is shaking. He doesn’t realize how bad until Shiro touches him.

“That,” he spits out, glaring at Kuro, but not really _at_ Kuro, more at the reality he’d been forced to live with. “Is not sex.” He says lowly. “That? That’s _rape_.”

Shiro’s hand tightens on his shoulder. He’s grateful for the grounding touch.

“Huh?” Kuro’s brow furrows.

“Oh god,” Keith whispers, and covers his face with his hands.

“Sex,” Shiro begins quietly, knowing Keith can’t answer this, “Is a mutual exchange. It is someone willingly taking another person inside themselves. It’s supposed to be an intimate experience, full of mutual respect and consent where the end goal is to bring each other pleasure and connect on a deeper level. Typically, it also means the two people participating love each other, like Keith and I do.”

“What you are describing,” Shiro continues, voice darkening in anger, “is rape. Where one person forces themselves on another person without consent – against their will. You’re right about one thing: rape is a powerplay. It’s done to take power away from someone else. It’s _sick_ and _wrong_ and is just as bad if not worse as physically torturing someone. You don’t typically bear any physical scars from a rape, but the emotional and mental scars are just as damaging.”

“I’m going to find Haggar, and I’m going to rip her to shreds for allowing this.” Keith whispers.

Kuro shrinks back from them. “You’re angry.”

“Of course we’re angry!” Keith shouts. “Kuro, you didn’t deserve that! You, _fuck_ , you didn’t even know how wrong it was! You didn’t _know what was being done to you!_ So many people _forced_ themselves on you and you couldn’t _stop it!”_ Keith is sobbing now, clutching at Shiro to keep himself standing.

Kuro isn’t just like Shiro. He’s just like _Keith_.

Kuro’s eyes go wide and he whines low and quiet in the back of his throat, a distressed noise. “This, this really bothers you.” He whispers.

“Of course it does,” Keith says shakily, “Because it happened to me, too.”

Shiro’s grip tightens around him, and he continues to shake, tears still streaming down his face, but he has to let Kuro know. Know that it wasn’t his fault, that it never was.

“Kuro,” He chokes, looking up into glowing yellow eyes. “I was in the same situation, trapped in a house with several men who wanted to shatter me. They did _terrible_ things to me. I still have nightmares about it. They _violated_ me, the same way those prisoners violated you. And I, god, it makes me _sick_ to imagine that happening to anyone else. Especially someone I care about.”

Kuro’s eyes have gone even wider, and he looks absolutely horrified by Keith’s words.

“It happened to you?” He whispers brokenly.

Keith swallows thickly. “Yes, and I will gut _anyone_ who allowed it to happen to you.” he swears, voice ragged.

“I…” Kuro starts shaking his head and taking a step back.

“Kuro?” Shiro asks quietly.

“I,” Kuro repeats, expression turning distraught, “I, I did it too. Oh gods, I did it too.”

Both Keith and Shiro freeze at the words. Oh no.

Then, before either of them can say anything, Kuro turns and flees the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kuro hates himself and Keith and Shiro are shook. I'm great at ending chapters. See you Wednesday.


	7. Ash

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a roller coaster, ya'll. But the only angst is right at the beginning so that's something.
> 
> WARNING for more discussion of rape, given the beginning of this chapter is a continuation of the last scene.

Kuro feels sick. He feels _vile_. He feels like every bit of the monster Haggar designed him to be. He is a monster. A monster tailor-made to prey on every one of the Red Paladin’s fears. He wonders distantly if Haggar knew this, or if it was coincidence. Honestly it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that he is just as sickening as whoever had hurt Keith. He was designed to be bloodthirsty and cruel and vicious, and had acted accordingly in the prison, dishing out whatever was served to him in order to survive. He was willing to bet that if Keith and Shiro knew what he’d done in those cells, they would despise him even more than they do now.

Because of course they despise him now. He’s just as bad (if not worse) than Keith’s worst fears. He did… _that_ , what did they call it, rape, and they seem to regard it as worse than death.

Gods, Kuro hates himself more than he ever has.

He makes his way blindly to the lower levels of the castle, stumbling out of the elevator and into the prison where he’d been held when he’d first been brought here. They never should have let him out. They should have kept him locked away. Or better yet, they should have killed him when he’d outlived his usefulness. Anything would be better than this _revolting_ realization that he has always been so much worse than he ever imagined.

He drops to his knees outside his cell and empties his stomach. It’s not enough to get rid of the sickening feeling in his body. He ends up dry-heaving for who knows how long. Then, when his body can’t give anymore, he crawls into the cell and curls up in the corner, trembling.

“I didn’t know,” He whimpers to himself. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know how _disgusting_ I was. I didn’t know.” He keeps muttering to himself, voice growing hoarse. So what if he didn’t know? He’s still a monster. He’s still _sick_ and _twisted_ and _wrong_.

“I’m so sorry,” He sobs, knowing they can’t hear him. “I’m sorry, _I’m sorry,_ I didn’t _know_.”

An eternity later, he hears footsteps approach him and he jerks back, not looking up. Something brushes his shoulder and he recoils, whimpering quietly. They tracked him down. Were probably getting ready to kill him. Good. It’s what he deserves.

“Kuro? Kuro, it’s okay,” Shiro’s voice is quiet and steady, but Kuro still flinches away from it.

_“No.”_

A sigh from his other side. “I don’t think he’s gonna listen to us right now.”

“You’re probably right.”

A warm weight settles in on his left side, leaning against him. A bigger, more solid weight takes up a place on his right. He’s held between the two of them, not daring to look up, still shaking and spewing worthless apologies. “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m _so sorry-”_

Nothing he can say will ever make it right.

Eventually, his shaking subsides. He’s too exhausted to keep it up. Even his words have left him. He sits in silence for a long time, the bodies of the Red and Black Paladins still pressed against him.

“Kuro,” Keith says quietly. He flinches.

“Hey, stop that.” Keith chides. “Kuro, listen to me, we’re not angry at you, okay?”

Kuro freezes. What? _How!?_

“We’re angry at the ones who knew better,” Shiro murmurs. “The prisoners who knew the difference and still chose to participate. We’re furious at Haggar for allowing such a thing to occur, and for propagating an environment where it was _expected_. Kuro, you’re right, you _didn’t_ know. You had no idea what was right and what was wrong. All you knew was that environment. No one ever taught you the difference. It’s not like you knew and still chose to do the wrong thing. You did what you had to in order to survive. Kuro, you really, truly did not know any different.”

“But, I’m… I still _did_ it.” Kuro rasps, not daring to look up. “I did the same thing that those men did to Keith. I’m just as bad as them. I’m, I really am Haggar’s monster.”

“No, you _aren’t_.” Keith snaps. Kuro peeks up at him, and sees his expression burning with an angry fire. Normally, he enjoys seeing that fire in Keith’s eyes. Right now, he’s not sure what to make of it.

“I am.” He says weakly.

Keith scowls and crosses his arms. “Would you do it now?”

Kuro blinks. “What?”

“If you were to be tossed back into that prison, right now after learning about what rape is, would you still do it?”

Kuro recoils. “ _No_ , gods, no, the thought makes me sick. It makes me sick thinking about the fact that I did it _before_.”

Keith sighs and leans against him again. “Did you _enjoy_ doing it before?”

Kuro gags, though he knows there’s nothing left in his stomach. “No.” He whispers. “Killing was one thing, I didn’t mind that, but _that thing_ always felt like… I don’t know, but I never liked it. But I knew if I didn’t do it, I’d be on the receiving end. That or the witch would get mad. She often used it as a form of punishment for my opponents.”

Keith’s fingers tighten on his own arms, almost hard enough to draw blood. “So you never did it of your own free will. It was either a defense mechanism or the witch forcing you to do it.”

Kuro nods shakily. He doesn’t see how that matters. He still did it.

“And those reasons,” Shiro says quietly, looping an arm around Kuro’s shoulders, “are why you are not a monster. You _know_ now, and you would never do it again. No one will ever _make you_ do it again. It’s not something you would ever _choose_ to do. When people murder under duress on Earth, we blame the one in charge, not the one who carried out the order. Haggar is the monster here, _not you_.”

Kuro whimpers again and reburies himself in his knees.

“It’s okay, Kuro.” Keith murmurs, and his arms wrap around Kuro as well. “You’re okay. _We’re_ okay. You are not a monster. And I am not scared of you.”

Kuro’s breath hitches, and he starts crying again. Keith and Shiro keep holding onto him as he breaks down, and don’t let go. Hugs. They’re hugging him. That’s what this kind of hold is.

He… he thinks he really likes hugs. They’re so warm. And make him feel… human.

Shiro and Keith make him feel human.

~*~

For several days after… all of that, Kuro keeps his distance. It pisses Keith off, so he corners the clone and tells him he’s being stupid, and they’d already _told_ him they weren’t upset or disgusted or scared or whatever else he thought they should be. Then he hugs him.

Kuro resumes following them around after that. But to Keith’s chagrin, he becomes just as overprotective of Keith as Shiro had been, just after _he’d_ found out about Keith’s past. The next time they fight the Galra, Kuro tries to sneak into the Red Lion with him.

“Seriously, what did you think you were going to do if I got hit?” Keith sighs in exasperation after they get back.

Kuro shrugs and fidgets, making Keith laugh quietly, then glance over at Shiro, who is shaking his head with an amused smile.

“This is your fault, Shirogane. He gets it from you.”

“Possibly,” Shiro says, still grinning. He claps a hand on Kuro’s shoulder, making the clone jump. “Don’t worry, buddy, I did the same thing when I found out.”

Kuro whines petulantly. “This is insane. Why do I wanna lock you up and cover you in soft things?”

“Because you care about him.” Shiro says gently. “And you want to make sure he’s not hurt like that again.”

“Damn right.” Kuro mutters, but begins to relax.

Kuro still soccer-moms him as much as he can get away with, but Keith decides to let it slide. It’s actually kind of cute. And it confuses the other castle residents to no end. No one understands why Kuro is suddenly hovering around Keith and hisses at Lance whenever the Blue Paladin tries to fight Keith. Keith fucking loves it. Shiro tries not to show it but he is… equally amused.

Kuro seems hesitant to ask anything now, but after gentle prodding from Shiro, he starts again, and this time Keith tells him everything he wants to know. He’s not sure if that increases the protectiveness or not but he doesn’t care. Kuro deserves to know. And in return, Kuro tells them more about his life in the Galra prisons, fighting in the ring just like Shiro did, and the witch’s tortures. It’s clearly painful to talk about, but the pair of them simply sandwich Kuro between them until he calms down again.

That’s another thing. Kuro is starved for contact. Since they first hugged him, he’s started draping himself over them at any given opportunity. They don’t really mind, but it is somewhat hilarious when Keith walks onto the bridge with Lance and Pidge one morning to see Shiro looking rather disgruntled and Kuro curled in his lap like one of those overgrown dogs that doesn’t realize how big it is. And he’s purring.  Keith takes so many pictures and will hold them over Shiro’s head for the rest of their lives.

All in all, life has grown rather… domestic, between the three of them. Keith doesn’t mind in the least.

~*~

Keith huffs as Shiro manages to knock his feet out from under him, and the Red Paladin crashes to the floor in a heap.

“Fuck.” He mutters, relaxing against the floor.

Shiro laughs and sits down on the mat next to his boyfriend, glancing over at Kuro. The clone never seems to get twitchy when Shiro spars with Keith, probably because he knows Shiro would never hurt Keith. Because he trusts him. Shiro smiles, then looks back down.

“You okay, baby?”

“Peachy.” Keith huffs, propping himself up on his elbows and scowling up at Shiro. “I thought I almost had you that time.”

“You did,” Shiro assures. “My only advantage was my size. If we were the same size, I’d have been the one on the floor.”

Keith grins. “One of these days you will be.”

Shiro leans down, pressing his forehead against Keith’s. “Is that a promise?”

Keith rolls his eyes in fond exasperation. “Just kiss me, superman.”

Shiro does so, gladly. They make out lazily on the floor of the training deck for several long minutes, uncaring of their audience of one. They’ve actually gotten quite used to Kuro witnessing their rare PDA. He seems fascinated by the idea of love, still, and studies them closely whenever they kiss or touch or act even vaguely coupley, always with a look of wonder and curiosity. Even Keith, who is usually so uncomfortable with being affectionate around people, doesn’t care about Kuro watching them anymore. In fact, he’d told Shiro one night, he actually sort of likes it.

“Is that weird? That’s weird, right?” Keith had said, frowning, with a light blush covering his cheeks.

“Maybe,” Shiro had said, shrugging, “but I kind of like it to, so we’re both weird.”

So there they are, kissing under the watchful gaze of his dark twin, when Kuro speaks.

“Guys?”

“Hm?” Shiro releases Keith and sits up, glancing back over at Kuro. Keith slowly sits up after him.

“I,” Kuro frowns, crossing his arms. “I was wondering…”

“Yeah?” Keith raises an eyebrow and leans against Shiro as they wait for the other man to word his question right.

“What… what does a kiss feel like?” Kuro asks quietly, and both paladins still. “I mean, it looks sort of… wet, and messy and kind of gross.” Kuro’s nose wrinkles as he says it. “I’m just having a hard time figuring out how it’s at all pleasant.”

“Oh boy,” Keith sighs and flops back down onto the mat. “You wanna give it a shot, Shiro?”

Shiro sighs and leans back on his hands, looking up at Kuro’s curious face. “A kiss doesn’t have to be ‘wet and messy’.” He explains. “Sometimes, it’s just pressing your lips together. Just that can be very soothing and pleasant.”

“Besides,” Keith mutters from the floor, “If you’re swapping spit with someone you really love, the grossness really doesn’t register.”

Shiro looks down at his boyfriend, aghast. “Keith!”

“He asked.” Keith says, sitting up and smirking up at Kuro. “Yeah, kisses can get really wet and messy what with tongues involved, but, when you love someone, when you want to be as close to them as possible, it really doesn’t seem to matter.”

Kuro cocks his head to the side, but nods. That seems to be it, for the day, and Keith and Shiro return to their room after bidding the clone goodnight.

~*~

The next day, Shiro and Keith are sparring again, after the team is done for the day. It’s late, later than it had been before, and Kuro is curled against the wall, watching them with half-lidded eyes as their sparring session turns into a makeout session.

“Guys?” Kuro asks quietly, and Keith sits up, releasing Shiro’s vest and glancing over his shoulder. Shiro tries to get his breath back, rubbing at the fresh bruise on his neck and blushing prettily.

“Yep?” Keith pops the p and grins.

“You know how I asked you about what kissing feels like yesterday?”

Shiro sits up then, cradling Keith in his lap. “Yes?”

Keith turns to face Kuro properly, waiting for the other man’s response.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about that, and about other things, and I was just… wondering…”

Keith’s heart starts beating rapidly in his chest. Is Kuro going to…? Would he really…? Shiro’s arms tighten around him and begin trembling.

Is Kuro going to ask to kiss one of them? _Both_ of them? Because if he does…

If he does…

Keith’s not sure he would say no. He’s not sure Shiro would either.

“Wondering what?” Shiro asks softly, and Keith knows he’s thinking the same thing.

Kuro huffs and crosses his arms, blushing slightly. “I was wondering… what sex feels like.” He says quietly.

The paladins simultaneously relax and tense at the same time. Oh.

“The good kind, I mean, not… the other thing. I know what that feels like.” Kuro hastily adds. “I just… I’m having a hard time picturing it. Like, how can you fuck and have it _not_ hurt? How could that ever feel _good_? It doesn’t make sense.”

Keith and Shiro glance at each other, then Shiro sighs, easing Keith off his lap so he can look at Kuro properly.

“Well, for one, since its actually something you want, you start off a lot more relaxed and comfortable.” Shiro starts, drifting into what Keith calls his “leader-voice”, strong, professional, and betraying none of his own emotions. “Typically, there is a lot of foreplay as well, to make both parties relaxed and make them feel good in advance.”

“Foreplay?” Kuro cocks his head to the side.

“Oh boy,” Shiro mutters under his breath. “Yes, like, making out, and taking each other’s clothes off to kiss and touch all the sensitive spots. There’s more pleasure centers on the body than just your dick. Taking the time to pay attention to those spots on your partner’s body can relax them a great deal. Foreplay can also involve oral sex – I’m assuming you know what that is?”

Kuro nods shortly. “Mouth on dick.”

“Also known as a blowjob.” Keith adds helpfully.

Shiro’s nose scrunches. “Right, and also fingering.”

“Fingering.” Kuro deadpans.

Shiro sighs heavily, a dark blush rising to his cheeks.

 _“Watashi wa hontōni kore o setsumei suru hitsuyō ga arimasu ka?”_ He mutters to Keith.

 _“Hai.”_ Keith says, grinning.

Shiro sighs again and turns back to Kuro. “Fingering is when you prepare your partner’s… _entrance_ for penetrative sex. For women it’s a lot easier to do as they have natural lubrication, but there is artificial lubrication that men can use. You coat your fingers in it and start with one finger, then when your partner is relaxed enough, you move to two, and so on. I normally use three for Keith.”

“Though I don’t really need three at this point.” Keith mutters.

“Yes you do, baby.” Shiro glances up at Kuro. “Then you use more lubrication and” he makes a vague hand gesture. “slide right in. Of course you should always wait for your partner to tell you they’ve adjusted before you move, and of course, stop if they say something hurts or they need more lube. It’s also always a good idea to talk to your partner in advance to find out what they like and what they don’t, like how I asked Keith very early on in our relationship what I needed to avoid.”

“For example,” Keith pipes up, “I can’t blow Shiro. Just, not gonna happen. Too much bad association. But he’s cool with it. My hand works just as well.”

“Keith,” Shiro sighs again and Keith laughs.

Kuro hums and crosses his arms, head still tilted to the side. “I’m still not sure I get it, but, as long as it works for you guys, I guess.”

“Well that’s… something.” Shiro acquiesces.

Not long after they all go to their rooms for the night, and as soon as the door swishes closed behind Shiro, Keith groans and sits down heavily on their bed, cradling his head in his hands.

“ _Fuck_ , Takashi, when he started talking I thought… I thought…”

“That he was going to ask to kiss us.” Shiro says, sitting down next to Keith and rubbing his back gently.

“Yeah,” he rasps, still not looking up. “And if he had… I think, I think I would have said yes.” He whispers the last part, waiting for Shiro’s reaction. But the older man simply wraps his arm around Keith.

“I think I would have, too.” Shiro murmurs.

They both sit in silence for several long minutes.

“What do we do?” Keith whispers. “I, I’m _scared_ , Takashi. After The Incident, I never thought I’d ever trust anyone with things like this, then after you, I thought I’d never feel this way for anyone else. But, I _trust_ Kuro. Isn’t that the stupidest thing? I trust him even though he tried to kill us. I trust him, and I think… I think I…” He can’t finish his sentence.

“Shh,” Shiro murmurs, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. “Easy, baby. You don’t need to be scared of this.”

“But I love _you_.” Keith says desperately. “Takashi, I love you more than anything! How can I… I don’t understand! I never thought I’d feel like this for _you_ and now I look at Kuro and I just want to curl up in his lap and let him hold me and I just, I don’t… I can’t…”

Shiro hushes him again and rearranges them both so that they’re lying flat on the bed, curled tightly together.

“It’s not unheard of to love more than one person, Keith.” Shiro murmurs into his hair. “Even more than one person at the same time.”

“I know that,” Keith whispers. “But I’m, I’m _me_.”

“I know you are, and you’re beautiful, and perfect, and perfectly capable of loving other people aside from me.” Shiro kisses the top of his head. “I care for him too, Keith. It isn’t just you. We both want the same thing. That’s good, right?”

“Yeah.” Keith finally looks up at Shiro’s gentle gray eyes. “So, what now?”

“I think that’s something we are going to have to discuss.” Shiro tells him. “Do we want to tell him how we feel? See if maybe he’d want to give this a try?”

“I, I think so. Yes.”

“And do we think he might feel the same way?”

Keith thinks about that for a moment. “I see the way he looks at us when we kiss.” He murmurs. “I know how overprotective he gets of me, and how distraught he still is about how close he came to killing you. I think there’ something there, though he may not know what it is.”

“Okay, then those are solved, but the real problem is how to go about doing this. Kuro still doesn’t really understand all of this,” He gestures between them, “So we’re going to have to show him we’re serious in a way that cannot be mistaken for anything else.”

They keep talking for a while after that, but eventually fall asleep. They discuss over the next few days how they might bring up the idea of a polyamorous relationship to Kuro, but to no avail. Until Keith has a really crazy idea.

“So, I’ve been thinking about what you said,” Keith says one night after he’s come twice and Shiro is still laying on top of him, too exhausted to move.

“Hm?” Shiro hums lazily, kissing a brand-new bruise on Keith’s neck.

“About Kuro? About how we’re going to have to be really obvious?”

“Oh?” Shiro sits up a little so he can look in Keith’s eyes.

“It’s a really really stupid idea,” he warns, the flush that had only just dissipated coming back in full-force.

Shiro smiles and kisses the tip of his nose. “Let’s hear it, baby.”

“Well, I was thinking,” He starts, “Kuro still doesn’t get all of this, right? He doesn’t get the affection, though he’s starting to, and the kissing and especially the intimacy that can come from having sex with someone you love.”

Shiro quirks a brow. “Yes?”

“So I was thinking… if words don’t convince him of how special it is…” Keith swallows, “If hearing about it doesn’t help him understand, maybe _seeing_ it would.”

Shiro freezes above him, looking down in shock. “You, what?”

“I told you it was a stupid idea!” Keith says and covers his burning face.

“Keith,” Shiro coaxes his hands away from his face carefully. “You want Kuro to… _watch_ us make love?”

“I know it’s a dumb idea,” Keith says weakly, looking at anything but Shiro, which is hard when Shiro is hovering over him and filling his vision, but dammit, he tries.

“It’s not,” Shiro assures, metal fingers brushing his bangs out of his eyes. “It’s just, I’m surprised you would suggest something like that, given, well, everything.”

“I know,” Keith sighs, slumping in defeat and finally meeting Shiro’s eyes again. “But, it’s not like back then.” He says quietly. “I’d be with _you_ , and I trust Kuro. I think, there would have to be, like, rules and stuff, so I could be comfortable, like, I don’t think I could have him touch me yet, but, I think… I think it would work.”

Shiro searches his face for any hesitation, but there is none to be found, so he nods slowly. “If you’re sure…”

“I’m sure.”

“Alright, then, we need to make sure all our bases are covered and establish what can and cannot happen. I know Kuro will follow any rules we give him. He doesn’t want to hurt either of us.”

Keith smiles a little at that. “I know, which is why this is okay.”

Shiro smiles back and kisses his forehead, rolling to the side and propping himself up on his prosthetic.

“Alright, then, baby, let’s figure this out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so, see that Consensual Voyeurism tag up there? Yeah, that's gonna come into play next chapter. Smut and feels and fluff ahoy.  
> Have a good rest of your week and if you're on the East Coast, please please please stay safe in the wake of Florence!  
> Japanese Conversation:  
> Shiro: Do I really need to explain this?  
> Keith: Yes.


	8. Smoke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good afternoon. Have some filth. And some fluff. Filthy fluff.

Kuro is getting used to his life aboard the Castle of Lions. The rest of the Paladins seem to be getting used to him and at least _one_ of the Alteans doesn’t hate his guts. The princess still wants to toss him out an airlock, but Kuro ignores her. Shiro and Keith would never let her.

And that, that’s a weird thing right there.

Shiro and Keith. The Black and Red Paladins. They care about him. And dammit, he cares about them too. He always wants to be with them, and maybe that’s a little weird or creepy but they don’t seem to have a problem with it so, dammit, he’s gonna keep following them around. They treat him like a person, like more than a monster, and Kuro lo- _appreciates_ that.

He wants to be around them all the time. He wants to be touching them _all the time_. When they go to their separate rooms at night it pisses him off because he can’t be with them. He’s actually wondered if they might be cool with him sleeping on their floor. It wouldn’t be the most uncomfortable place he’d ever slept, and then he could be near them. He just… he just wants to be with them.

Though he does realize he can’t be with them all the time. They’re _together_ after all, and he’s managed to figure out that people in romantic relationships need their _alone time_. To have sex. Non-painful sex. Somehow. Kuro still doesn’t really comprehend that but as long as they aren’t hurting each other he can deal with the incredulity. Doesn’t mean he’s not still damn curious, though.

Which is why when Keith and Shiro come to him a week after he’d asked them to describe it, he thinks he hears them wrong.

“I, you, what.” Kuro blinks at the pair of them rapidly, eyes darting back and forth between them.

“Please don’t make me repeat it.” Keith grumbles, blushing a pretty red shade that makes Kuro want to nuzzle against him.

“You.” He starts slowly, looking up at Shiro who can still meet his eyes, expression calm and relaxed, though Kuro can smell the faint trace of nervous embarrassment on him as well. He just hides it better. “Want me. To come watch you guys fuck.”

“Make love.” Shiro corrects. “And yes. We know you still don’t understand it. And that might be okay under different circumstances, but, Kuro, we _want_ you to understand. And if words aren’t enough to convince you, then seeing it will.”

“You can say no!” Keith pipes up, covering his face. “It’s not like, like we’d make you, if it makes you uncomfortable, but we thought it might help!”

“You’re okay with this?” He asks Keith, remembering what little tidbits the Red Paladin had shared about his own trauma. Seems like an audience might be a bad idea.

“It was my idea.” Keith says hesitantly. “I mean, yeah, I’d need a lot of boundaries in place and you’ll have to follow some rules we give you but,” He finally looks back up. “I trust you.” He says quietly, and Shiro reaches out to squeeze his boyfriend’s shoulder.

Kuro’s eyes go wide. “Oh.” He knows from what Shiro has said that Keith trusting someone is a very rare occurrence. Kuro feels something warm and light flood his chest.

“So, would that be, something that might work?” Shiro asks quietly. “You seeing it? Would…” The Black Paladin swallows thickly. “Would you want to?”

Kuro looks at them both for a long minute, thinking. He wants to see everything. Everything they are willing to show him. He wants to know them on every level and wants to bear his own heart in return.

“Yes.”

~*~

They agree that that night will be as good as any, and that Kuro will come to their room after everyone else has retired for the evening. They also give him a rundown of what rules and boundaries he has to follow. He listens with rapt attention the whole time, nodding after every new rule is explained. Then they split for the remainder of the evening, Shiro bringing Keith back to their room so the younger pilot can calm down and prepare himself for this.

“Are you okay, baby?” Shiro murmurs, sitting next to his boyfriend and tugging him into his side.

“Yeah,” Keith murmurs, letting out a shaky exhale.

Shiro frowns and presses a kiss to the top of Keith’s head. “You sure you’re up for this?”

Keith looks up at him, raising an eyebrow. “Are you?” He counters, and Shiro pauses.

Is he nervous? Yes.

Is he worried about how everything is going to turn out? Definitely.

Does he want to call the whole thing off, and live with his and Keith’s feelings being locked away and unspoken? Not a bit.

“I am.” He confirms. “I want to do this, but only if you’re sure you’re comfortable.”

Keith nods slowly. “To be honest, I’m a little terrified.” Keith confesses quietly. “But, it’s Kuro. So, I know we’ll be okay.”

“We will indeed.” Shiro murmurs, and kisses Keith. “I want this, Keith.”

Keith smiles and presses their foreheads together. “I do too.”

Outside in the hallway, they hear someone approach. Shiro stands. “You ready?” He asks, looking down at his boyfriend.

Keith nods. “Let’s do this.”

~*~

Kuro stands in front of Shiro and Keith’s door, shifting uneasily. He’s been here for five fucking minutes and he hasn’t knocked yet. For some reason, he’s extremely nervous and on edge. But, he has no reason to be, right? Keith had said it was his idea, and Shiro seemed just as open to it as the Red Paladin, and he understands what he can’t do, so why in the void is he nervous?

He growls in frustration, glaring at the door as if it’s _its_ fault he can’t bring himself to knock.

Suddenly, the door hisses open and Kuro jumps, chirping in surprise.

Shiro leans against the doorframe, shirtless and clearly amused. “You coming in?” He asks, teasing.

Kuro grumbles a curse under his breath and rubs the back of his neck. “Sorry.”

Shiro smiles and steps aside. “Come on.”

Kuro slips into the room and spots Keith fidgeting on the edge of the bed. The smells of nerves and excitement war with each other in the air and Kuro fights the urge to sneeze.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” Kuro asks and Keith nods once.

“Nervous. Twitchy. But okay.” Keith confirms, smiling a little.

Shiro closes and locks the door behind them and comes to stand next to the bed, nodding his head towards their desk chair which they’ve pulled into the middle of the tiny room, next to the bed. Kuro sits dutifully.

“We’re going to go over the… guidelines, one last time just so everyone is on the same page.” Shiro says, looking about as nervous as Keith.

“Yeah,” Kuro mutters, swallowing thickly. Why is _he_ nervous? He’s not the one getting naked!

“Okay,” Shiro sits and puts an arm around Keith’s shoulders. The Red Paladin leans into it, and Kuro has the sudden urge to take up position on his other side. It looks unprotected, especially when Keith is feeling vulnerable. He pushes the urge down.

“You are here to watch, but you cannot touch.” Shiro begins, exactly the way he had that afternoon when they’d first discussed all this. “Keith trusts you but that would be a bit too much for him. Also refrain from asking questions-” “We’ll be a little busy,” Keith interjects, “-or talking at all, for similar reasons. Basically, just sit and watch. However, if you start to feel uncomfortable, you are of course allowed to leave, we will not take offense. And since Keith shuts down when he gets overwhelmed or has a flashback, I will take into consideration his wellbeing, and ask you to leave if I feel your presence is having a negative effect on his mental state. You got all that?”

Kuro nods firmly. “I understand.”

Shiro smiles at him and stretches out his free hand to squeeze Kuro’s. “You good?”

Kuro swallows again. “I’m good.”

“Okay.” Shiro turns to Keith. “You alright, baby?”

“You worry too much, Takashi.” Keith murmurs. “I’m good too. What about you?”

Shiro laughs briefly. “I’m fine.”

“Right. Then, let’s… do this.”

They turn their attention to each other and away from him, Shiro’s hand releasing his own so he can cup Keith’s cheeks. He leans in and kisses the Red Paladin slowly, causing Keith to let out a deep sigh, shoulders visibly relaxing. Shiro’s human hand slides down from Keith’s face, down his chest to his hem, hiking it up a little and tracing his fingers over the bare patch of skin revealed.

“Off,” Shiro murmurs, and Keith pulls away to tug the gray shirt over his head, dropping it on the floor next to them. Keith’s hands start running over Shiro’s already bared torso and Shiro ducks his head to kiss along the column of Keith’s throat.

“Lay down for me, baby.” Shiro murmurs. Keith sighs and falls back against the pillows, raising his arms over his head so he can tug off his gloves, tossing them onto the nightstand. He reaches up to finger a small green bead around his neck before reaching out to Shiro. “C’mere.” He whispers and Shiro kisses one of his palms.

“One moment,” The Black Paladin says, then pops the button on Keith’s jeans, sliding the zipper down and tugging them off Keith’s legs. They join the younger pilot’s shirt on the floor.

Kuro’s never seen Keith with so little on. He takes the time to admire the young man’s frame. So small compared to him and Shiro, but it’s easy to see the layer of whip-corded muscles under his pale skin.

While he was busy ogling, Shiro divests himself of his own pants and even his underwear, so Kuro’s gaze shifts to the other man. He should be used to seeing Shiro naked, as he kind of has the same physique. He sees it every day in the mirror. He should be desensitized to it.

Should.

He ogles Shiro just as much as he’d ogled Keith a moment ago. The Black Paladin’s body is covered in scars, like his own, but underneath is soft, tanned skin and a trail of dark hair leading down to…

Kuro’s eyes widen a fraction. Are they… actually the same size? Looking at Shiro’s fully hard dick, he has to wonder about that.

Shiro turns and Kuro is faced with a very tight ass that he has the urge to smack. He huffs under his breath and grips the edge of the chair. No. Bad Kuro.

Shiro leans down and kisses Keith again, tugging at the waistband of his boxers. “May I?”

Keith swallows thickly and glances at Kuro for such a brief instant, he almost wonders if he’d imagined it.

“Yeah,” He breathes, and his tense muscles relax again.

Shiro kisses his forehead. “You’re safe.” He whispers. Kuro probably wasn’t meant to hear, but his ears are much better than theirs.

Keith smiles up at his boyfriend. “I know. I’m always safe with you. Both of you.” The last part is said in an equally quiet whisper, and Kuro has to fight the urge to purr.

Shiro slides off Keith’s boxers and they, too, are deposited next to the bed. Kuro stares openly. It’s not as if either of them is paying attention to him. Keith is gorgeous. He’s blushing red down to his chest, and his cock is the same flushed color, resting against his stomach. Shiro hovers over him and their dicks slide together, making them both hiss.

Something warm bubbles in the pit of Kuro’s stomach, much to his alarm.

They’re kissing again, tongues tangling and spit going… everywhere. Kuro still doesn’t understand how that’s not gross, but gods, does it _look_ good.

Shiro starts kissing his way down Keith’s neck and chest, pausing to mouth over his peaked nipples, causing Keith to let out a high, breathy sound that Kuro would _love_ to hear again thank you very much.

As if Shiro can hear him, he smirks and scrapes his teeth over the bud in his mouth, and Keith replicates the sound. Repeatedly.

“Always so sensitive,” Shiro coos, kissing Keith’s sternum and descending lower.

“Shut it,” Keith pants, hands releasing the pillow he’d been clutching so he can bury his fingers in Shiro’s long white forelock.

Shiro shrugs, smiling against Keith’s hip. “As you wish.” Then he swallows Keith’s cock and the younger man _screams._

A good scream. “Shiro! Fuck, fuck, oh god,”

Kuro’s claws dig into the chair below him. Oh god, that warmth in his stomach is getting hotter. He wants to reach out to Keith, splay his fingers over his heaving chest to feel that racing heartbeat he can hear from here.

But he can’t. He knows now why they went to the trouble of explicitly saying _no touching_.

Shiro pulls off with a wet pop and licks his lips, smiling up at Keith. And now Kuro has the urge to lick them too. He can’t, so he licks his own. It’s a poor substitute.

Shiro looks off to the side and reaches out to grasp a bottle Kuro hadn’t noticed before, popping open the cap and tipping it over so the contents spills into his palm. The gel is faintly green and smells clean and mild. Pleasant.

He spreads the gel over three of his fingers before capping the bottle and setting it to the side.

“Spread your legs for me, baby.” Shiro says gently. Keith’s thighs twitch, and then they part easily, allowing Shiro to settle more comfortably between them, while also giving Kuro a _fantastic view_.

Shiro slides down a little, kissing Keith’s inner thigh, then the juncture of his hip and pelvis, then…

Kuro’s eyes go wide around the same time Keith lets out a choked wail.

Shiro’s tongue makes another pass over Keith’s clenched hole and the younger man’s breath hitches.

“Takashi,” He whines, tossing his head back.

“Beautiful,” Shiro murmurs affectionately, then pushes his tongue _inside_ , making Keith wail louder.

It should be disgusting but Kuro can’t tear his eyes away. Foreplay, huh? The heat in his stomach goes molten.

Shiro pulls back several minutes later and instead slides one of his slicked fingers inside Keith. Instead of wincing in pain as Kuro might expect, Keith sighs and goes completely lax, hole clenching rhythmically around the digit. Shiro hums, pleased, and presses a kiss right above Keith’s bellybutton.

“Good, so good, baby. You open up for me so well. Can you take another?”

“God, _yes_.” Keith breathes, spreading his thighs apart another inch.

Kuro tilts his head, watching in fascination as a second finger slides in beside the first, just as easily. Keith sighs again and rolls his hips up, into the intrusion.

It feels… good, to Keith. Kuro’s brow furrows. How the void…?

Shiro scissors his fingers apart, and again, Keith moans in pleasure and absolutely zero pain. There is no scent of distress or discomfort or anything besides something spicy and something else that’s sweet. Kuro recognizes both scents coming from the two, but he doesn’t know which emotions they are. Clearly though, they’re good ones.

Suddenly, Shiro’s fingers twist, and Keith arches up off the bed with a jolt, a sharp spike of surprise flooding the air.

Kuro jerks forwards slightly, afraid Keith is finally hurting, then he realizes Keith is begging.

“God, Shiro, there, right there, please more _please_!”

Huh.

Shiro smiles and kisses the inside of Keith’s thigh before sliding in a third finger and twisting them again, repeating whatever he’d done before. It must be good, because Keith’s cock is absolutely _leaking_.

“Shiro, Takashi, please, now, need you _now!_ ” Keith gasps, and Shiro immediately pulls his fingers away. Keith whimpers at the motion and Kuro sees his hole clench around nothing. Fuck, that’s…

Shiro rocks back on his heels and reaches for the bottle again, pouring more of the gel out and slicking up his cock, panting as he jacks himself off. Kuro’s eyes are glued to the sight, and he’s mildly disappointed when Shiro stops. But then he’s hovering over Keith, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. His cock nudges up against Keith’s hole and Kuro’s stomach clenches. This is it, here comes the pain.

Shiro shifts his hips forward, and his cock slides inside.

Keith tenses briefly, arms tightening where they’re draped around Shiro’s shoulders, but the scream Kuro had been anticipating never comes. He gasps raggedly for a moment, then moans and buries his face in Shiro’s shoulder.

Shiro hums and kisses the side of Keith’s head, not moving an inch. Only the head of his cock is inside Keith, but he doesn’t move to press forward. Not until Keith shifts slightly and whispers “You can move.”

Only then does Shiro continue pressing his hips forwards, stilling again when he’s all the way inside. He pulls away to look Keith in the eyes, pressing their foreheads together as Kuro has seen them do a thousand times. They both close their eyes and just breath together for a long moment.

Kuro takes that moment to go _what the fuck_. Shiro currently has his dick in Keith’s ass. But Keith is not in any pain that Kuro can tell. And there is absolutely no trace of blood in the air.

Son of a bitch, they were right.

Shiro begins moving again, pulling out a fraction and rocking forwards again, causing Keith to choke out a whimper.

“I’m okay,” The Red Paladin whispers, nuzzling against Shiro’s cheek. “I’m good, Takashi, please move, _please_.”

“Anything for you,” Shiro murmurs and presses their lips together, hips picking up speed as he starts rocking into Keith harder.

The spicy-sweet scents in the air merge together into something unique that Kuro has never smelled before, and he watches the two on the bed with hooded eyes. They look good together. They always look good together, but this is… He doesn’t really know how to describe the image. It was an impossible thing, but Keith and Shiro have made it possible. Sex can be pleasurable on the receiving end instead of painful.

Shiro leans down and starts murmuring gentle praise into Keith’s ear, a lot of _I love you_ s and _you’re so good for me_ and _god baby you feel so good_. Kuro tilts his head again, the heat in his stomach moving up to his chest and making his heart beat rapidly. Is this what lovemaking is? Because, it really doesn’t seem so bad, like this.

Speaking of that heat, Kuro is stunned to realize that he’s actually grown _hard_ in his pants. No, no, bad, bad, he can’t… he _can’t_. He grits his teeth and digs his nails harder into the chair. This is supposed to be educational and… and _safe_ for Keith, for them _both_. He can’t… he can’t.

While he’s been distracted, Shiro seems to have started doing something that Keith really likes, because he’s moaning loudly and biting at Shiro’s shoulder.

“Takashi Takashi please, god, please,” he’s babbling, nails digging into Shiro’s scarred shoulders.

Shiro shifts and his human hand slides between them, beginning to jack Keith off at the same pace his own cock is pounding into him.

“I got you baby, it’s okay, come for me, Keith.” Shiro whispers in his ear, and Keith arches up with a shout, white spilling between their stomachs.

“Takashi!” Keith howls, throwing his head back as he comes, “Come inside me, please please please…”

Shiro shudders and thrusts in a handful of times before he stills, hips jerking against Keith’s.

Keith sighs shakily and goes boneless, sinking into the sheets with a pleased hum.

Shiro takes a few minutes to gather himself, face pressed into Keith’s shoulder, before he pulls back, and pulls out. Keith whimpers – again, not in pain… in loss? – and Kuro has to fight to tear his gaze away from the sight of Shiro’s come spilling out of Keith’s red, puffy hole. It’s thick and white and… there is no blood. None at all.

Shiro sighs and swings his legs over the side of the bed, standing and turning back to tug the sheets up to Keith’s waist, leaning down and kissing his forehead.

“Be right back,” he murmurs, then turns. He spots Kuro and he freezes, wondering what happens now, but Shiro just gives him a tired smile and walks towards their bathroom, squeezing Kuro’s shoulder briefly as he passes. Kuro turns his gaze to the bed, where Keith is now looking at him with half-lidded eyes. Kuro jumps.

Keith snorts and stretches. “Hey,”

Kuro swallows around a sudden lump in his throat. Keith is beautiful like this, languid and happy. “Hi.” He manages to croak.

Keith’s small smile widens into a grin and he holds an arm out towards the clone. “C’mere.”

Kuro blinks at the outstretched hand. “I, you said, no touching.”

Keith rolls his eyes, still smiling. “That was when we were having sex and I was too out of my mind to process anything. I’m processing again, so come here.”

Kuro lets out a shaky breath and stands uneasily, walking the few steps over to the bed and taking Keith’s hand. The Red Paladin tugs until he’s sitting on the edge of the bed and blinking down at Keith, very confused and concerned.

“You get it now?” Keith asks, yawning around the last word.

Kuro nods. “Yeah,” he murmurs, stroking his thumb across the back of Keith’s hand, which he still has in his grip “I think I do.”

“Good,” Shiro’s voice says behind him, and he turns to the Black Paladin in all his naked glory, clean of any bodily fluids and holding a washcloth. He slides onto the bed and over to the inside, tugging down the sheets so he can wipe Keith off. Kuro is still staring at him though.

Gods, Shiro is beautiful too. That should be a little self-absorbed to say, but Shiro is just… more than him. Always. He’s as mesmerizing as the endless expanse of stars outside, and Keith, Keith burns brighter than any sun.

He would give anything to stay with them here, like this, for the rest of his miserable life.

Shiro tosses the washcloth over to join Keith’s clothes and tugs the blankets back over the younger man, then fixes Kuro with an intense look.

Kuro flinches. Right, demonstration over. They need to kick him out now. He tries not to feel disappointed, or worse, _hurt_.

“Kuro,” Shiro says slowly, glancing down at Keith, who nods, gripping Kuro’s hand. “There is… another reason we did this, aside from wanting to… demonstrate.”

Kuro raises an eyebrow. Okay. Not what he had been expecting.

“Truth is,” Keith says quietly, using the fingers of his free hand to trace over Kuro’s, “our _main_ motive wasn’t a demonstration, it’s… an invitation.”

“Invitation,” Kuro repeats slowly.

“Yes,” Shiro rubs the back of his neck. “We, Keith and I, have been talking. And the truth is, we’ve been growing closer to you over these past months, and we both… we want you. We can’t imagine being without you. We… Kuro, we’re falling in love with you, slowly but surely, and we… we want… to know if maybe, you feel the same way about us, and if you do,” Shiro swallows thickly, a blush rising to his cheeks. “If you do, then, we want you to join us. In our relationship.”

Kuro stops breathing, for a long moment.

“I, you,” he stutters, not sure how to go about addressing all that. “You’re… you want… me?”

“Yes,” Keith says quietly. He can’t meet Kuro’s eyes, still holding onto the clone’s hand with both of his. “I never would have been able to do this if I didn’t trust you with my life. If I didn’t care about you, believe in you, like I do Shiro.”

“I know romantic feelings, and love in general, are still very confusing for you,” Shiro says quietly, fiddling with a loose thread in the sheets, “but, do you… do you think you feel… similarly? About us?”

Kuro ponders this for a long minute. He still doesn’t know what love is, not really, but he’s learning. And all the feelings he has about them… “I, I’m not sure if what I feel is what you guys are talking about, but… I always want to be near you. I always want to be _touching_ you. I want to be with you all the time, and it _kills_ me at night when I have to go to my own room. I think about the times that I hurt you and I feel _sick_.  I want to lock Keith up where he’ll be safe and hunt down his attackers, so I can tear them to shreds. I want to cover you in blankets and keep you as far away from the witch as physically possible. I want to protect you both from anything and everything that could possibly harm you. I want to be with you, always.” He looks up at Shiro, then glances down at Keith – who is finally looking at him – then back to Shiro.

“Is that, is that anything like what you guys are saying?” He asks quietly.

Shiro’s expression melts into something extremely soft and gentle. It’s the same look he gives Keith, all the time. “Yeah, something like that.” He says quietly.

He leans forwards then, and presses his forehead against Kuro’s, causing the clone’s breath to hitch. This is that thing the two of them do. Their special romantic thing.

“Kuro,” Shiro murmurs, “can I kiss you?”

Kuro stops breathing again, his pulse racing in his ears. “Yes,” he breathes, and then Shiro’s lips are pressed against his own.

Kuro’s eyes slip shut automatically. It’s… soft. Shiro is so _soft_ beneath his touch. His lips move gently against Kuro’s own and he copies the movement without thought. He reaches up with his free hand – his metal hand – and slides his fingers around the back of Shiro’s neck, claw-tips scratching gently at the short hairs he finds there.

It’s amazing. Kuro never wants to stop.

But Shiro pulls away a few moments later, making Kuro whine quietly. Shiro huffs a laugh and presses their foreheads together again. “That was your first kiss.” Shiro says, smiling. “That’s a pretty big deal.”

“Oh,” Kuro says dumbly, and absently licks his lips. Wow.

Keith tugs on the hand he still has in his grip and Kuro looks down, startled. He’d briefly forgotten Keith was there too.

“Now that Shiro’s given you a good first kiss,” The Red Paladin says, grinning. “You wanna know what a _real_ kiss feels like?”

“Keith,” Shiro chides gently, but Keith waves him off.

“Oh come on, Takashi, one kiss isn’t going to break him.”

“I do,” Kuro says quickly. “Want to know, I mean.”

Keith beams up at him, and Kuro is momentarily blinded. “Then get down here.”

Keith props himself up on an elbow, and Kuro leans down, pressing their lips together. Keith immediately attacks his mouth, running his tongue along Kuro’s bottom lip. He opens his mouth in shock and jolts when Keith’s tongue glides inside, prodding at his sharp teeth and curling around his own tongue. Keith coaxes Kuro into sliding his tongue into the smaller man’s mouth and Kuro is lost, diving deeper and deeper, doing as much as Keith will allow. He growls a little and nips at Keith’s bottom lip, causing his breath to hitch. Yes. Good.

Keith finally pulls away and Kuro growls again, but he just laughs. “So,” he says, leaning back against the pillow. “Did you notice it?”

Kuro blinks at him dumbly, still panting. “Notice what?”

“That it was ‘wet and gross’.” Keith says, grinning.

“Oh.” Kuro blinks and thinks back. There was definitely a lot of saliva going everywhere, but Kuro hadn’t given a single shit about it. “No.”

“Told you.” Keith purrs, then yawns.

“You need sleep.” Shiro says gently.

“Yep.” Keith agrees, then snuggles deeper in the blankets, but still does not release Kuro’s hand.

“Uh,”

“Stay.” Shiro tells him. “Stay in here with us tonight. Just, just to sleep.” He looks down and brushes a strand of hair out of Keith’s face. “Just, if you want to. You can say no.”

“I want to.” Kuro says quickly. He’s wanted to every single night. No way is he passing this up.

Shiro smiles and stands, stretching, then tugs on his discarded underwear. “Keith, boxers?”

“I’m good. He’s already seen us fuck,” Keith mutters, not opening his eyes.

Shiro shrugs, then nudges at Kuro until he strips out of his own shirt. He keeps his pants on, not quite sure of his limits, but Shiro doesn’t comment, just slides in on Kuro’s other side so he’s sandwiched between the two lovers (and gods, does he understand that word now).

“Lights off,” Shiro says, and the room goes dark. Kuro lays on his back, keeping as still as possible, unsure what is acceptable, but then, Keith sighs and drapes himself over Kuro’s right side, cheek pressed to his chest, and Shiro turns to him as well, one arm resting across his stomach.

“We’ll talk more in the morning.” He says, sighing. Kuro can feel his breath tickle his ear. “Sleep, Kuro.”

Kuro finally relaxes and does as the Black Paladin bids, drifting off in the arms of the two people he trusts above all else, their heartbeats the sweetest possible lullaby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Polyamory is so good. OT3s are full of love and support and I love them. And I love that our clone baby is loved. :)  
> I hope everyone made it through the hurricane okay and will continue to be okay in the coming days and weeks. I'll see you all on Wednesday.


	9. Gunmetal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some good old OT3 fluff for the soul.

Kuro wakes slowly, which in and of itself is unusual. He’s used to snapping awake as soon as Shiro knocks on his door, trained to be alert at the smallest sounds. This wake-up call is much softer, slower. Sleep bleeds away and he finds himself warm and secure wrapped in soft white blankets. He doesn’t want to open his eyes. He hasn’t felt peace like this in, well, _ever_.

As he’s marveling over this novelty, something shifts behind him and an arm drapes over his waist. He tenses instantly. Who… what…

“You awake?” A voice murmurs sleepily, and he feels warm breath on the back of his neck.

Keith. Kuro relaxes again, remembering the still somewhat shocking events of last night. “Yeah.” He rasps, turning to face the Red Paladin.

Keith smiles, clearly having just come awake himself, and hums as he presses closer to Kuro’s side. “Sleep okay?” He asks around a yawn.

“Better than usual.” He says honestly. He turns his head to survey the room behind him and frowns when he finds it empty. “Where’s Shiro?”

Keith snorts. “He always wakes up at the crack of dawn. He can’t stand being still for any longer than necessary. He’s probably already dressed in armor and on the bridge. Normally I bite the bullet and get up with him, but,” Keith hesitates.

“But what?”

Keith looks up at him almost _shyly_. When has Keith Kogane ever been shy?

“I didn’t want you to wake up alone.” He confesses quietly.

Something twists strangely in Kuro’s chest, and he can’t contain the purr he lets out, pressing his face against the top of Keith’s head and inhaling his soothing scent. He and Shiro smell like every kind of home he could ever imagine.

“Can I, can I kiss you again?” Kuro whispers a few moments later. “Is that something I’m allowed to ask for?”

Keith laughs lightly and pulls back so he can press their foreheads together. “Yes.” He says fondly, then tilts forwards and slots their lips together.

Kuro sighs and wraps his arms around Keith’s waist, keeping the young man close. He’s so warm, like a furnace. Kuro’s always been cold, until now. Keith really is a sun. He runs his hands down Keith’s bare back and sighs at the feel of his skin. This is perfect. The only thing that would make it better is if Shiro were here too.

As if the man had somehow heard him, the door hisses open and Kuro jolts.

“Oh good, you two are up.” Shiro hums, crossing to the bed as Kuro tries to get his heart started again.

Keith rolls his eyes, giving his boyfriend a long look. “See? He’s already in armor. Goddamn superman.”

Shiro huffs and sits on the edge of the bed, reaching over to ruffle Keith’s hair. “It never hurts to be prepared, baby.”

Keith sticks out his tongue. “It wouldn’t kill you to sleep in _once_ , Shirogane.”

“Wouldn’t it, though?” Shiro teases, then glances down at Kuro. “You okay?”

“Fine, just, processing.” He says haltingly. Is Shiro going to be mad he kissed Keith?

“Processing, huh? Is that what we’re calling it now?” Shiro hums. Kuro growls under his breath and turns his head, staring at the wall. Not mad, at least.

Then Shiro asks “Do you need to ‘process’ with me, too?” and Kuro forgives him, yanking the Black Paladin down into his arms and kissing him for all he’s worth. Even in a “real kiss” Shiro kisses more gently than Keith, but Kuro supposes that makes sense. That’s just who he is. Softer, calmer, gentler than their little spitfire.

Then that word, _theirs_ , makes Kuro pause. Is that… can he say that? Are they really _his_ now?

“Kuro?” Shiro asks as he pulls back. He combs Kuro’s forelock out of his face and gives him a concerned look. Keith leans over him to see the clone as well. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m…” Kuro thinks for a minute. “I’m a little disoriented.” He says honestly. “But, in a good way? It’s a lot to process, and I didn’t have a lot of time last night, so, it’s gonna take me a while, to realize this is… real.”

“It’s real.” Keith promises, “But I get what you mean. It’s gonna be a little surreal for all of us for a while, but we’ll ease into it. Even Shiro and I had to ease into it when we first started dating.”

Kuro nods and lets his shoulders relax. Good. This is good.

Shiro stands and stretches. “You need to get up and get moving. Keith, we have a training session with the others in a couple hours. Breakfast is still going but you should hurry.”

“Yeah yeah.” Keith huffs, and nudges Kuro. “You gotta get up so I can, big guy.”

Kuro slides out from underneath the sheets and scoops u his discarded shirt, tugging it on easily. Shiro frowns at it as he does.

“We need to get you some new clothes.” He muses. “I’m glad we found you something aside from the prisoner garb, but… bright yellow doesn’t really suit you.”

Kuro glances down at said bright yellow shirt. Coran had found it somewhere, and it had apparently belonged to the previous Blue Paladin. Shiro is right. He kind of hates it.

“Yes please.” He mutters.

Keith snorts and tosses back the covers, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “It does look a little ridiculous.” He says, then he stands to walk over to his and Shiro’s dresser. Kuro hastily averts his eyes. He’d forgotten Keith never put any clothes back on last night.

Somewhere behind him, the Red Paladin laughs. “Really? You do remember you watched us have sex last night, right? You have _definitely_ already seen me naked.”

“I know but, this is different.” Kuro whines, meeting Shiro’s amused eyes for a moment before hastily looking down at the floor. “Last night I had your – fuck, what’s the word you guys use, consent? – consent, to see you naked. I don’t now.”

Keith laughs again, gentler, then Kuro feels a hand on the nape of his neck. He looks up to see Shiro giving him a very soft look. “You’re wonderful.” He says simply, and kisses Kuro’s forehead. Kuro blinks rapidly, not sure what prompted that, then he feels a pair of arms wrapping around his waist.

“I think you may have gotten a little of Shiro’s chivalry by accident.” Keith teases. Kuro turns to see the Red Paladin now fully dressed in his civvies, jacket slung over his shoulder.

“What?”

Keith huffs and leans up to press a kiss to the corner of Kuro’s mouth. “Come on, batman, breakfast time.”

“Really, Keith?” Shiro asks, clearly amused as the three of them exit the room.

“It’s accurate.” Keith argues. “You’re clearly superman, but Kuro is dark and broody and gritty, and your opposite in many ways, but still looks a lot like you! It’s totally Batman versus Superman, but with kissing instead of punching.”

“I thought you liked Marvel more?”

“Marvel for the movies, DC for the comics.” Keith corrects. “Except for X-Men. I know we still have that framed issue of the gay mutant wedding in our belongings somewhere on Earth.”

Kuro is following none of this conversation, but he’s happy enough to listen to the sounds of their voices wrapping around him as they walk towards the dining hall.

~*~

Keith has no idea why he thought he’d be nervous. Kuro is like Shiro in many ways, including respecting his boundaries. The night before had gone tremendously well, ending in them confessing to Kuro and getting something _extremely_ close to a confession in return. Last night squished against the wall was one of the best he’s ever slept.

After breakfast, they all report to the bridge, and Kuro is clearly unsure of his boundaries, so Keith tugs him down to sit next to his chair and starts combing absently through his hair while he skims through the readings from last night. Kuro relaxes after a few moments and begins purring quietly, leaning up into the touch. No one, aside from Shiro, notices anything different.

But things are different. Kuro keeps touching them throughout the day – more than usual. He digs his chin into Keith’s thigh when they’re on the bridge and Keith is reading their latest battle reports. He grips the back of Shiro’s shirt behind the chair at lunch, and the Black Paladin’s own hand drops to his wrist and squeezes. Kuro growls even more than usual during their daily training session, not just when Keith is sparring with Hunk, but when _Pidge_ manages to get the jump on _Shiro_. It’s highly amusing, and Shiro blushes, though Keith knows he will deny it for the rest of forever.

All in all, the day is just like any other, but at the same time, it’s more different than Keith can comprehend. He thinks he’s okay with that.

~*~

That night, they offer to let him sleep in their room again. Kuro hesitates. “You guys said we should take this slow.” He says quietly. “So we should… take this slow.”

“Of course.” Shiro says instantly. “But just know that it’s an open invitation. You can come stay with us whenever you want to.”

“I second that.” Keith says, crossing his arms. “So don’t feel like you _can’t_ come sleep with us, okay?”

“Okay.”

Kuro thinks this is the right course of action. They have to ease into this – _he_ has to ease into this. Spending every night with them right off the bat would be weird, right?

But as Kuro lays down in his own bed, he realizes his mistake. Last night had been the first peaceful sleep he’d had in his entire life, and now that he knows what that feels like, he can’t sleep at all.

He growls and turns over, shutting his eyes tight and trying to _will_ himself to sleep. But several hours of tossing and turning later, his eyes snap open in frustration.

“ _Dammit_ ,” He hisses, and pushes himself to his feet. He slinks out of his room and down the hall, opening the door to their room as quietly as he can (which isn’t much, considering it’s automatic). They’re curled together on their bed, Keith still against the wall and Shiro curled around him, shielding him from the room at large.

Kuro whines quietly as the door hisses closed behind him and pads towards the bed, sitting down on the floor next to it and curling up on the small rug there, closing his eyes and sighing deeply. He already feels so much better, surrounded by their comforting scents. He dozes off, finally.

Only to be awoken what can’t be long after by a cold metal hand on his shoulder.

“Kuro, what are you doing down there?” Shiro rasps, sleep thick in his voice.

“I, I’m sorry,” he says quietly, hoping Keith is still asleep. “I tried sleeping in my room but I couldn’t, so I just…”

Shiro shakes his head, frowning. “That’s not what I meant. We told you it’s fine if you wanted to sleep with us, but why on Earth are you sleeping on the floor?”

Kuro fidgets. “I, you guys looked comfortable, and I didn’t want to intrude.”

Shiro sighs and tugs at his shoulder until Kuro sits up on his knees. “Get in here,” Shiro says softly, inching back and holding the covers up. Keith stirs behind him but doesn’t wake.

Kuro glances down at the bare sheets then up at Shiro, who smiles at him sleepily. “Come on, sweetheart.” He murmurs.

Something inside Kuro melts at the nickname, and he crawls in next to the Black Paladin, curling against his side.

“Now isn’t that better?” Shiro murmurs, fingers stroking through his hair carefully.

“Yeah,” Kuro breathes, inhaling Shiro’s calming scent greedily.

“Sleep, sweetheart. We’re here.” Shiro murmurs, and Kuro obeys, falling asleep between one heartbeat and the next.

~*~

Shiro is relieved the next morning when he wakes and finds Kuro still in the bed. He’d been worried the other man might slip back to the floor once he’d fallen asleep. Keith is surprised, but happily so, when he wakes to find Kuro on Shiro’s other side, and the clone is very sheepish about the whole thing. Thankfully after that, Kuro opts to just sleep with them every night, which they are more than okay with.

“I sleep better, when I’m with you two.” Kuro admits to them. “I don’t think I _can_ sleep on my own anymore.”

“Good thing you don’t have to.” Keith tells him and kisses him.

Shiro makes a lot of interesting observations about his dark twin in the week following their relationship-shift. Such as Kuro _loves_ kissing. He takes every opportunity to kiss them and still seems extremely happy watching him kiss Keith. He also develops a mild (not so mild, really) obsession with skin contact, which they are happy to accommodate. He confesses quietly that the way they touch him is so different from the way he’d been touched before – harsh, cruel, painful – and that it makes him feel more human. They force him into the middle of the bed after that and hold him all night.

One night, they pull him to the bed as they strip out of their clothes, save for their underwear, and encourage him to do the same.

“Uh,” Kuro says uncertainly, staring at their barely clothed forms.

Keith rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. “We’re not planning to seduce you. Yet.”

“Trust us.” Shiro encourages.

Kuro looks between them for another moment before removing his new shirt (a tight, black thing with three-quarter length sleeves that they’d managed to find on the last planet. Kuro had wanted to burn the yellow one but settled for sending it out the airlock instead). He then works off his pants and stands before them in nothing but his underwear.

“Good.” Shiro murmurs. Keith climbs into the bed and Shiro gestures after him. “Get in.”

Kuro crawls into the bed slowly, and chirps in surprise when Keith tugs him close. Shiro gets in behind him and the lights are shut off. Kuro stills for a moment, processing, before going boneless between them, purring quietly. “ _Oh_ ,” He sighs.

“See? More skin, more cuddling, more happy Kuro.” Keith hums.

“Gods, yes.” Kuro practically moans, flipping onto his side and dragging Keith against his chest, before reaching behind him to tug Shiro up against his back. “Can we sleep like this from now on?”

“We typically do.” Shiro murmurs fondly.

“Good.” Kuro sighs. He and Keith fall asleep soon after. Shiro runs his hands over Kuro’s side, then Keith’s, before locking his arm around both their torsos and finally closing his eyes. He loves his boys so much. And he adores knowing that they’re safe, secure and happy, here in his arms.

~*~

“What the void are you watching?” Kuro mutters.

Lance jumps and the video he, Pidge and Keith had been watching pauses. Keith laughs and looks up at Kuro with a raised eyebrow while Lance gets his breathing back.

“Keith! Control your… boyfriend’s… clone…”

“Never.” Keith says. Kuro purrs and wraps his arms around Keith’s shoulders.

Lance huffs but brings up the screen again. “We’re watching funny cat videos.”

“Cat?” Kuro asks, tilting his head.

“It’s like you, but tiny and furry.” Pidge teases.

Keith pats the empty space next to him. ‘C’mere, batman. Learn of Earth’s greatest pastime: giggling at tiny fluffy things.”

Kuro, to no one’s great surprise, loves cats.

“I want twenty.” He deadpans, watching a tiny black kitten have a sneezing fit on the screen.

“When we get back to Earth, okay?” Keith says fondly, patting the clone’s shoulder.

Another video plays of a kitten purring quietly as its owner pets it with huge hands. The size difference is adorable.

“Huh,” Kuro says, tilting his head and smirking.

“What?” Lance asks, glancing over at him.

Kuro laughs. “It sounds like Keith when he’s been kissed really well.”

The Blue Paladin chokes. “I did _not_ need to know that!”

Keith goes bright red and shoves his laughing boyfriend – can he call Kuro that now? – off the sofa.

“Aw, kitten, I’m sorry,” Kuro coos and Keith flushes darker and covers his face.

“Never call me that again.” Keith hisses.

When Kuro presses him into the mattress that night while Shiro is changing, kissing the life out of him and purring “kitten” in his ear, Keith realizes that it’s going to stick, but he can’t bring himself to care.

~*~

Kuro wakes early one morning to gentle fingers tracing a line over his shoulder blade and down part of his back. He blinks his eyes open and, to his surprise, sees Shiro still in bed and asleep, so it must be _really_ early. He turns his head to see Keith, head propped up on one hand and tracing Kuro’s back with the other. He’s frowning, expression pensive and sad, and Kuro chirps to get his attention. “What’s wrong, kitten?” He rasps.

Keith sighs and presses a little harder, and now Kuro can feel that Keith is tracing a thick scar. The scar Keith had given him, that time he’d tried to kill Shiro and Hunk, during their second ever meeting. Oh.

“I’m so sorry.” Keith whispers.

Kuro turns onto his side so Keith can’t see the scar anymore and takes his hand, bringing it to his mouth and kissing it. “You did what you had to.” He says quietly. “I would have killed them if you hadn’t struck me. And then where would we be?”

“I know it hurt you.” Keith says shakily. “I still remember the way you _screamed_ , I, I can’t just…” Keith’s eyes are growing wet with tears and Kuro whines quietly, leaning forwards to nudge their foreheads together.

“I’m okay, Keith. It wasn’t the worst injury I ever received.”

“That doesn’t make it right!” Keith chokes.

“No,” Kuro agrees, tugging the Red Paladin close and wrapping him up in his arms. “But neither was how I was back then. You did what you did to keep Shiro safe. If our positions had been reversed, I would have done the same in a heartbeat. I _still_ would, to protect you both. Never apologize for caring about us so much you’d kill for us. Just, don’t.”

Keith smiles up at him shakily. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Kuro kisses him and holds him close, and eventually, Keith falls back to sleep.

Shiro shifts behind him, and a kiss is pressed to the nape of his neck.

“You handled that well.” Shiro says quietly.

“You were awake?” Kuro hisses, looking over his shoulder at the smiling Black Paladin. “Why didn’t you say something? You could have calmed him down!”

“But I didn’t need to. You managed just fine on your own.” Shiro kisses him quickly and rolls over, pulling up the sheets.

Kuro blinks at the Black Paladin’s back for a minute, before a slow grin appears on his face. He just managed to comfort Keith.

He snuggles down in the sheets, pressing back against Shiro and keeping Keith close. Maybe he’s getting the hang of this whole “boyfriend” thing.

~*~

“Shiro?”

Shiro turns to see Kuro standing in the doorway of the observation deck.

“Hey,” Shiro murmurs.

“What the void are you doing out here? I woke up and you were gone.” Kuro mutters, rubbing one of his eyes.

“Did Keith wake up too?” Shiro asks, mild panic rising up inside him.

“Nah, didn’t figure I needed to wake him if I could just come get you myself.” Kuro frowns and pads further into the room, vaulting over the back of the sofa and dropping down next to the Black Paladin.

“What’s up, babe?”

Shiro sighs and leans back against the sofa. “Nightmares. You get them?”

“All the damn time.” Kuro snorts. “Mine are pretty quiet though. You and Keith typically scream.”

Shiro’s eyes go wide. “How did you know that?”

Kuro shrugs and leans forwards, bracing his elbows on his knees and staring out into the black. “I have good hearing. Even before I started sleeping in there with you guys, I could hear you from down the hall.”

Shiro sighs again and leans against Kuro, who wraps an arm around his shoulders. “Sorry.”

Kuro shrugs beneath him. “It’s fine. We all get ‘em, so I don’t get why you’re out here brooding rather than, you know, just _talking_ to us.”

“I didn’t want to bother you.”

“Shiro,” Kuro pulls him up and turns him so they’re facing each other. “You never bother us. Isn’t the whole point of being loved by someone to be able to talk to them about this kind of shit? Being able to face it together? That’s what you’ve done for Keith, right? And what you guys have done for me. Why the fuck wouldn’t we do it for you?”

Shiro laughs a little and presses his forehead against Kuro’s. “Good point. I just,” he pauses, swallowing.

“I know, babe, but trust me, I’d rather you wake us up. I hated waking up to find you gone. It set of my protective instinct like nothing else.”

“Sorry.” Shiro winces.

Kuro shrugs. “And I know Keith’s gonna flip his shit if he wakes up and finds us _both_ gone, so, let’s get back to him, yeah?”

Shiro leans forwards and kisses Kuro gently. “Yeah.”

He lets his clone tug him back to their room, where Keith is just sitting up and glares at them blearily.

“Where the hell were you two?” He mutters.

“Shiro had a nightmare and went off to brood alone rather than wake us up. I went to go get him.” Kuro shrugs and pushes Shiro down into the bed, crawling in behind him so he’s sandwiched in the middle.

“Dammit, superman, how many times do I have to tell you to wake me up?” Keith mutters and tucks his head under Shiro’s chin, curling up against him.

“Sorry for worrying you both.” He whispers, and Kuro snorts behind him, wrapping an arm around them both and pulling them close.

“Just don’t next time.” He mumbles.

Shiro smiles and settles between his boyfriends, drifting off to sleep easily. No more dreams plague him that night.

~*~

Kuro is very pleased with their situation. Both their relationship situation – which has grown into a warm, comfortable constant in his life – and the literal situation at hand.

They’re making out in a tangle on the bed, which they’d been in the middle of getting into for the night, but is Kuro complaining? _Void_ no.

He and Shiro have Keith pinned on his back and are licking and kissing at any available skin they can reach. Keith is boneless beneath them, spread out and languid and soft and _fuck_ , Kuro wants to devour him. Shiro seems to have the same thought.

Shiro starts sucking on one of Keith’s nipples, causing the Red Paladin to moan sharply, while Kuro sucks a dark bruise into his neck, where even his high-collared jacket will never be able to hide it.

Kuro leans a little more against Keith’s side to get better leverage and hears the boy’s breath hitch. Kuro realizes why a moment later.

He got hard. He didn’t even notice.

For a moment, Kuro freezes, then throws himself away from the pair of them, falling to the floor and scrambling back.

“Sorry, I’m sorry, I’m _sorry-_ ” He chokes out, breath coming in quick little pants. He can’t breathe.

“Kuro!” Shiro shouts and drops to the floor next to him, taking his shoulders. “Easy, easy, sweetheart, you need to breathe. Come on, match my breaths, can you do that?”

Kuro nods shakily and tries to copy the Black Paladin’s breathing, slowly regaining his lung capacity.

Keith is suddenly there, tucking himself against Kuro’s side and squeezing his human hand as he starts to calm down.

“What happened?” Shiro asks gently, combing Kuro’s fringe out of his eyes.

“I,” Kuro can’t get the words out. Can’t express to them what he did wrong. Why it scared him.

“He realized he’d gotten hard while we were making out.” Keith says quietly, and Kuro flinches.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Shiro breathes and kisses his forehead. “It’s okay.”

“No it’s _not_.” Kuro chokes and buries his face in his hands. “Every time I’ve ever… it’s been to _hurt_ , to _humiliate_ , and, I don’t know if, if… if I know how to do anything else! If I could ever be _gentle_ , the way I need to be. I can’t risk hurting either of you. I can’t, I _can’t-_ ”

“Shh,” Shiro soothes, tugging him forwards so his head is resting in the crook of Shiro’s neck and shoulder.

“You’re not gonna hurt us, Kuro.” Keith says quietly. “You’re not a monster, remember? You want to be gentle with us. You _have_ been gentle with us. Sex isn’t gonna be any different.”

“How do you know?” Kuro whispers.

“Because we trust you.” Keith says, like it’s the simplest thing in the world.

“Kuro,” Shiro murmurs, petting his hair, “you’re scared because you don’t know any other way to do it, but, sweetheart, we will be more than happy to show you, just like we have with everything else. We can go as slowly as you want to make you feel comfortable. Even if you never want to try having sex with us, we’ll understand.”

“Yeah, you can just keep being a welcome voyeur.” Keith teases gently.

“I want to,” Kuro admits, feeling guilty but trying not to. “I just, I can’t- I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t.” Keith promises, kissing his shoulder. “Like Shiro said, we can do this with baby steps. Whatever makes you feel more comfortable and in control. You’ve had your decisions taken away from you all your life, batman, the least we can do is give you control here, with us.”

Kuro nods against Shiro’s shoulder. “Being a voyeur again might be a good start.” He turns his head to grin shyly at Keith. “I really, _really_ wanted to be able to touch. It’s a damn good thing you explicitly told me I couldn’t.”

Keith tilts his head and smirks. “I think we can arrange that. Takashi?”

Shiro sighs, but he’s smiling. “Everyone back to the bed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More consensual voyeurism to come, my friends! And I... am going to go die after writing it holy shit.  
> See you Sunday!


	10. Slate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More consensual voyeurism. More filth. More fluff. Minor angst. Woohoo!

Kuro loves this. This is so, so, _so_ much better than last time.

Keith chokes out a moan, arching his back as Shiro swallows down his cock in one go. The Red Paladin turns his head and buries it into Kuro’s thigh, squeezing his Galra hand as he does. Kuro’s sitting at the top of the bed with Keith’s head cradled in his lap.

And he can touch as much as he wants.

He runs his human hand across Keith’s chest, marked from Shiro’s love bites and the marks that Kuro had left on him earlier in the evening. Gods, it’s such a good look on him. He’s gotten hard again but he is steadfastly ignoring it, focused more on the gorgeous sounds spilling out of Keith’s throat and the way Shiro looks as he works their boyfriend over.

Shiro shifts a bit and a spasm rockets through Keith, causing him to shout and thrash in Kuro’s arms. Shiro just put a finger in.

The spicy and sweet scents are accumulating in the room again, and Kuro is happy to know this time that they’re the scents of lust and love, respectively.

Keith releases Kuro’s hand only to reach up higher and grip his bicep as Shiro works in a second finger. The Red Paladin chokes, nails digging into Kuro’s skin.

“Feel good, kitten?” Kuro purrs.

“God yes,” Keith pants, opening his eyes to stare up at him. “Kiss me?”

Kuro leans down and presses their lips together. It’s a weird angle, but Keith sighs happily into his mouth so he’s not going to complain. He pulls back several moments later when Keith shouts, turning and biting Kuro’s thigh. Shiro is smirking.

Kuro raises an eyebrow and pets Keith’s hair, ignoring the teeth digging into his skin. It’s not like human teeth are sharp. “The fuck did you do?”

Shiro’s smirk widens int a grin. “Found his prostate.”

“His what now?”

“The spot that makes sex feel fantastic,” Keith groans. “Shiro, more, please!”

“Of course, baby.” Shiro coos and presses another finger inside. “It’s a gland inside the body that when stimulated, feels very pleasurable.” He explains to Kuro, even as he keeps fucking his fingers into their writhing boyfriend.

“Ah. So that’s why it feels good.”

Shiro shrugs. “Not just that, but it certainly helps.”

“Can you two please stop talking so Shiro can fuck me!?” Keith growls, causing them both to laugh.

“Sorry, baby.” Shiro hums and draws his fingers out. He leans over Keith, which also puts him right in Kuro’s face, and Shiro takes advantage of that by kissing his nose.

Kuro scrunches it up and growls playfully, nipping at the Black Paladin’s lip. Shiro grins and kisses him properly before shifting down to guide himself into Keith.

“ _Oh_ ,” Keith sighs and goes pliant in Kuro’s lap. He purrs and combs Keith’s hair back from his face as Shiro leans down to kiss him slowly.

“Okay?” Shiro murmurs, and Kuro can feel the Red Paladin nod.

“Move.”

Shiro pulls his hips back and presses back in slowly for the first few minutes, before Keith growls in frustration and wraps his legs around Shiro’s hips, pulling him back in sharply.

Kuro watches their steady movements with hazy eyes, still combing through Keith’s hair. God they look so good. He wants to touch.

Oh wait, he can.

He reaches out and grips Shiro’s hair, tugging his face up so he can kiss him messily as he continues to pound into Keith. Keith’s hand reach back to grip Kuro’s again, and he threads his fingers through Keith’s and squeezes, finally releasing Shiro so he can take Keith’s other hand as well. Shiro keeps kissing him, which is a total plus.

Keith begins writhing and gasping an indeterminate time later, and Kuro panics at first, remembering what the Red Paladin has said about not liking his hands to be restrained, but Keith’s the one who has _his_ hands in a death grip.

“Touch me,” he gasps. “Please, please I need to,” he cuts himself off with a moan. “I need to come!”

Shiro pulls back from where he’d been sucking a mark into Kuro’s shoulder and raises an eyebrow.

It’s an offer, one he can refuse if he’s uncomfortable. But, they trust him, so maybe he can trust himself. At least when Shiro’s here to keep an eye on him.

He pulls his human hand free from Keith’s grip and Shiro takes it instead, guiding it down between his and Keith’s bodies and wraps it around the Red Paladin’s dick.

Keith gasps and his eyes fly open, looking up at Kuro.

“Is this okay?” He asks hesitantly, grip tightening minutely.

“ _God,_ yes,” Keith groans. “Come on, Kuro.”

Kuro’s angle is awkward, and his movements aren’t smooth, but Keith comes soon after anyway, gripping Kuro’s prosthetic so tightly he’s worried it’s going to break.

Shiro leans down to whisper praise and sweet words in Keith’s ear, thrusting a few more times before he comes himself.

Keith wraps his free arm around Shiro’s back and adjusts his grip on Kuro’s prosthetic so it’s not crushing. He sighs and turns his head, nuzzling into the clone’s thigh.

“Okay, kitten?” Kuro murmurs.

Keith hums, smiling. Kuro will take that as a yes.

Shiro sighs and hefts himself up a moment later, causing Keith to whine quietly as he slips out. Kuro, having no shame, stares openly at the Black Paladin’s flaccid cock, covered in various fluids.

Shiro laughs and leans over to kiss the top of his head. “I’ll be right back with a washcloth.” He murmurs, and saunters into the bathroom.

“Kuro?”

Kuro looks back down at Keith from where he’d been ogling Shiro’s ass and raises an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“Lay down with me? I’m cold.”

Kuro purrs and slips out from under Keith, setting his head down on a pillow instead before slipping in between the Red Paladin and the wall.

“You feeling okay?” he murmurs, still not fully convinced about the zero pain thing.

Keith hums an affirmative, then reaches below himself, gasping a little before pulling his fingers back. Kuro stares at them, now covered in Shiro’s come.

“No blood.” Keith says easily, then brings his fingers towards his mouth, as though to lick them clean. Kuro grabs his wrist, halting his movements and growling quietly.

“Kuro?”

Kuro growls again and pulls Keith’s hand to his mouth, sucking Keith’s fingers into his own mouth.

“ _Shit_.” Keith breathes, and Kuro purrs around the digits.

“You two taste good together.” He rasps as he releases Keith’s hand.

“Fucking hell, that was really hot.” Keith whispers and Kuro laughs.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Keith grabs his wrist and urges it down, and Kuro jumps as his fingertips brush against Keith’s stretched hole. “Do it again.”

“ _Fuck_ , kitten,” he hisses, and carefully traces his fingertips around Keith’s rim.

“Not right now, maybe,” Keith laughs. “But you can finger me if you want.”

_“Fuck_.” Kuro groans. “I, I don’t know if…”

“Kuro,” Keith reaches up and takes Kuro’s chin, tilting him up to face Keith. “I am extremely loose and pliant and relaxed. Now is probably the best time to finger me. You will not hurt me with just a couple fingers when I literally _just had_ Shiro’s dick, okay?”

He makes a very fair point.

So with a shaky breath, Kuro presses the tips of two fingers inside Keith.

_Warm_. Kuro thinks as Keith sighs below him. _Warm and wet_.

“Okay?” He whispers, and Keith laughs.

“God, you sound like Shiro.” He says fondly. “But yeah, I’m okay. It feels good.”

Kuro nods slowly, then turns his attention to where his fingers are dipping into Keith’s entrance. He presses them inside more until his knuckles bumps up against Keith’s skin and the Red Paladin lets out a quiet moan.

“Good,” he breathes, and Kuro _feels_ his muscles go lax around his fingers.

“Whoa,” He whispers. He wiggles his fingers a little, feeling around Keith’s walls, and the boy seems more than happy to let him explore. A few moments later though, as Kuro presses a little further in, he tenses.

“Keith?”

“Left,” Keith says, “Just, go a little to the left,”

Kuro raises an eyebrow, then nudges his fingers over a little. He has a moment to register a patch of flesh that’s somehow different and then Keith groans, muscles clenching around his fingers rhythmically.

Kuro’s face heats up at the reaction. Holy shit, Keith is beautiful.

“That,” Keith says raggedly a moment later, “is my prostate.”

_Oh_.

Kuro smirks, and jabs his fingers into the spot harshly.

Keith screams, arching off the bed. “Fuck, fuck!”

Kuro laughs a little breathlessly and continues to massage that one spot over and over for several moments, relishing Keith’s little noises and his body’s reactions.

Kuro is so focused on the Red Paladin’s face, he’s taken by complete surprise when the boy comes untouched over his stomach.

“Holy _shit_.” Kuro whispers reverently, placing his Galra hand over Keith’s heaving chest, feeling his heartbeat pound away under his fingers. “I just…”

“Milked my prostate so well I came untouched not twenty minutes after my last orgasm? Yeah. Yeah you did.” Keith is smiling up at him, completely relaxed.

“Wait,” Kuro says slowly, brow furrowing. “Twenty minutes? Where the hell is Shiro?”

Keith shrugs. “Probably watching us from the bathroom door.” He raises his voice a little. “Right, Takashi?”

Shiro laughs and Kuro’s head snaps up to see Shiro leaning in the bathroom doorway.

“You know me so well, baby.” He says, walking over and handing Kuro a wet washcloth. “Here, you’re already down there, you clean him up.” The Black Paladin teases, kissing Kuro’s forehead and sliding under the covers next to Keith.

Kuro stares at the cloth for a moment before remembering, right, clean-up and aftercare are important parts of The Good Sex. He slides his fingers out of Keith and the boy sighs at the loss, which does something to Kuro’s insides.

Before he can wipe off his own hand, Shiro reaches out and grabs his wrist, curling his tongue around the digits and lapping at them lazily.

That _also_ does something to Kuro’s insides. These two are gonna kill him.

“Mm, you’re right. We do taste good together.” Shiro purrs, licking his lips and releasing Kuro’s hand.

Fuck, he’s dead.

He busies himself with very carefully wiping off Keith’s stomach (well, he mostly leans down and licks up the boy’s come and then gets pulled into a filthy kiss by Shiro) and then around his hole. Shiro takes the cloth and tosses it into the corner of the room, then turns to eye Kuro.

Kuro raises an eyebrow. “What?”

“You’re still hard.” Shiro points out.

Kuro shifts uneasily. Oh yeah. “So?”

Shiro raises an eyebrow of his own. “So would you like to do something about that?”

Kuro tenses. No, no no no he’d hurt them he’d-

“Hey,” a pair of hands, one warm and one cool cup his cheeks, bringing him out of his spiral. Shiro has climbed over Keith and is now straddling Kuro, eyes soft and concerned as they trace over his expression. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.” He whispers, and Shiro’s expression crumbles, causing Kuro to panic for a moment.

“You’re not going to.” Shiro murmurs. Beside them, Keith turns over and nuzzles into Kuro’s shoulder, wrapping a hand around his bicep and squeezing.

“We want you to feel good too, batman.” Keith mumbles. “You’re not gonna hurt us by having an orgasm.”

“I know that, but,”

“Negative association.” Keith huffs. “Trust me, I get it. I was the same way after The Incident. But now all those bad associations I once had have been replaced with good ones. Sex is a good thing for me now, instead of something that scares me or hurts me.” He glances up at Kuro. “All you associate your orgasm with right now are unpleasant things meant to hurt. Let us change that. Let Shiro get you off.”

Kuro hesitates for a moment longer before glancing up at Shiro. “I, okay.”

Shiro leans down and kisses him gently. “Tell me if it’s still too uncomfortable and you want me to stop. I will, Kuro. You’re in a place where you’re safe.”

Kuro swallows thickly. “I know.”

Shiro smiles a little then sits back, curling his fingers under the waistband of Kuro’s pants. “Lift up?”

Kuro lifts his hips and Shiro tugs down his pants, stripping them off completely and tossing them over onto the floor. This is okay. He’s been mostly naked around them before. But, not when he’d been hard.

Shiro ducks down again and presses a kiss to Kuro’s stomach before tugging on his underwear, pulling the elastic down enough so his cock can spring free.

Kuro flinches a little, but another kiss from Shiro combined with Keith’s fingers lacing through his own calm him. He’s not gonna hurt them. They _want_ to do this for him.

Shiro reaches out and snags the bottle of green gel again, pouring some into his palm before tucking it back into the drawer above the bed. Carefully, the Black Paladin wraps his fingers around Kuro’s erection.

Kuro groans, startled, and squeezes Keith’s hand. Fuck, fuck, why is he so sensitive?

“Because you’ve been hard for like two hours now?” Keith supplies helpfully. “Oh, and you’ve probably never actually had anyone touch your dick so like, that too.”

Oh, had he said that out loud?

“Yep.”

Shiro laughs a little before sliding his fist down Kuro’s length, causing the clone to hiss and dig his metal claws into the sheets. He keeps himself still as Shiro continues to work him over with long, slow strokes. Fuck that feels… really good.

Shiro leans forwards and kisses his cheek. “It’s okay, sweetheart, you can let go a little.” He smooths his own prosthetic down Kuro’s side, trying to get his muscles to relax.

“Come on, Kuro.” Keith purrs, nipping his shoulder. “Shiro’s a lot stronger than you’re giving him credit for. He can hold you down if need be.”

_Fuck_ why is _that_ hot?? Kuro growls and bucks his hips up sharply, and Shiro grins.

“There we go.” He coos, and kisses Kuro. He leans back a little and lets Kuro fuck up into his fist after that. Kuro growls a little and curls the arm not being hugged by Keith around Shiro’s neck, bringing him close. Shiro hums quietly and presses their foreheads together.

“Come on, sweetheart. Let go. Come for us.”

Kuro does with a strangled whine.

Shiro coos at him, murmuring little praises as Kuro catches his breath. He whines when Shiro pulls away but Keith is there, cuddled against him so for the moment, Kuro can let it rest. Shiro returns soon after anyway with a fresh cloth to wipe Kuro down with. He disposes of that one too before encouraging them all to get comfortable, ordering the lights off as he does.

“Well, so much for baby steps.” Kuro mutters into the darkness.

“But you enjoyed it? You didn’t feel anxious or pushed into anything?” Keith asks hesitantly between them.

Kuro looks at him steadily, able to see him well even in the dark. “I enjoyed it.” he says quietly. “Very much.”

“Good.” Shiro murmurs and reaches across Keith to take Kuro’s Galra hand where it lays on top of the sheets.

Kuro sighs and nuzzles into the back of Keith’s head, gripping Shiro’s hand tightly. They were right. They can show him how to be gentle, so he won’t hurt them. He trusts them to be able to show him.

He trusts them.

Kuro smiles a little and closes his eyes. “My mates.” He coos.

“Mates?” Shiro murmurs.

“I, it’s, I don’t know why I said that.”  Kuro says, brow furrowing. “It just seemed… right.”

“I thin it’s what the Galra call their partners.” Keith mumbles. “Think I heard ‘Lura say that once when she was talking ‘bout them.”

Kuro shifts uneasily. He really shouldn’t use a Galra word of endearment, especially around Shiro.

But Shiro hums thoughtfully. “Guess that makes sense. You do have Galra instincts.” He reaches over Keith and takes Kuro’s hand, squeezing gently. “So, I guess we are your mates.”

Kuro is quiet for a moment before squeezing back. “Mates.” He sighs again, nuzzling against Keith’s shoulder.

“Lovers.” Keith counters. And that word warms Kuro all the way through.

~*~

Something eases between the three of them after that. Keith is relieved that Kuro’s not so scared of himself anymore, and also extremely frustrated by it, as he has developed a habit of dragging Keith into the nearest empty room and making him come in his pants. He feels a little better knowing that he does it to Shiro too, but still.

A week after their second and much more fun bout of voyeurism and a month after the beginning of their relationship, Keith is awakened in the middle of the night by ragged gasps. And not the good kind.

Keith turns away from the wall to see Shiro starting to thrash and claw at the sheets, sweat beading on his brow. One particularly violent jerk nearly shoves Kuro out of the bed and he wakes with a yelp.

“Wh-?”

“He’s having a nightmare.” Keith says quietly, and Kuro winces.

A moment later, Shiro screams “No!” and sits bolt upright, hand activating, and Keith leans away from the heat of it. Shiro’s eyes are wild and not focused on the room so Keith knows he’s still in the dream. He reaches out and runs a hand along his boyfriend’s bicep soothingly as Kuro scrambles out of the bed, plastering himself against the far wall. Keith frowns up at the clone but for the moment, focuses on bringing Shiro back to the present.

“It’s okay, Takashi, you’re not in the arena or with the druids. You’re in the Castle of Lions with me and Kuro. We’re safe. It’s okay, superman, just breathe.”

Shiro shudders and blinks, eyes clearing and hand powering down. “Keith, did I…?”

Keith shakes his head. “Didn’t touch either of us.”

Shiro sags back against the headboard in relief. “Good.”

“Oh, and,” Keith turns towards where Kuro is still pressed against the wall, eyes clenched shut. “What the hell are you doing over there?”

Kuro blinks his eyes open slowly and looks up, wincing. “I didn’t want my eyes to scare him.” He says quietly.

Keith melts a little and shakes his head.

“Come here,” Shiro murmurs, holding out a hand to their wayward boyfriend. Kuro walks over and sits on the edge of the bed, taking Shiro’s hand in his own. Shiro brings it up and kisses the back of it sweetly, before tugging Kuro in so he can kiss him properly. “You are wonderful, and considerate, and I love you so much.” Shiro murmurs.

Kuro’s eyes go wide and Keith swears he stops breathing. “Huh?” He chokes out.

Shiro smiles and kisses the tip of his nose. “I love you.”

“Huh.” Kuro leans back a little and stares at the Black Paladin.

Keith laughs and drapes his arms over Shiro’s shoulders. “I think you broke him.” He teases.

“No, I, No.” Kuro stutters out, shaking his head to clear it. “I just, huh.”

“You sound pretty broken to me, batman.” Keith coos.

“You don’t have to say it back, sweetheart.” Shiro says gently, squeezing his hand. “I just wanted you to know.”

Kuro shakes his head again. “No, shut up, that’s not,” He makes a frustrated noise and kisses Shiro again, a little rougher than before. When he pulls back he sighs and looks down at Shiro’s hand, playing with his fingers absently.

“I told you I still don’t really _get_ these emotions, but, from what you told me and from what I can understand…” He swallows thickly. “Then, what I feel means that I probably love you too.” He looks up at them again. “Both of you.”

Shiro drags Kuro into a hug and the clone all but melts into it, purring loudly and burying his face in Shiro’s neck. Keith sighs and pushes them all back to the sheets.

“You guys are huge saps.” He huffs, nuzzling against the back of Shiro’s shoulder and reaching over to grip Kuro’s free hand. “But I love you both a lot.”

Kuro purrs even louder, and they all fall asleep to the sound.

~*~

It’s no surprise that Kuro becomes even cuddlier and more touchy after their confessions the previous night. So when he presses Keith up against the wall in an empty hallway and proceeds to attack his lips, Keith’s not surprised, just sighs and wraps his arms around his boyfriend’s neck. He’s more than okay with a little break.

~*~

Lance has been looking for Shiro for the better part of an hour with no luck. He groans in frustration and rounds a corner, ready to give up, when he spots Shiro finally, pinning Keith up against a wall and kissing him.

Lance rolls his eyes and figures that if he wanted to find Shiro, he should have looked for Keith.

“Okay, you two, we get it, you’re an _item_ and can kiss whenever, but you need to come up for air for a minute. I have a question for Shiro.”

“What did you want to ask me, Lance?”

Lance jumps several feet in the air and whirls around to stare in shock. Shiro is standing behind him in full paladin armor, eyebrow raised, and arms crossed.

“I, you, what,” Lance stammers, and turns back to see…

Kuro pulls away from Keith and growls a little, pulling the Red Paladin closer against him. Keith just laughs and swats at him. “Down, boy.”

“The hall? Really, guys?” Shiro sighs, but he’s smiling and _not_ tearing Kuro a new one for making out with his boyfriend.

“Hey, don’t look at me, he started it, I just went along for the ride.” Keith protests, smirking.

“Couldn’t find an empty room.” Kuro shrugs.

“You liar.” Keith grumbles.

“Oh totally, but it’s a good excuse.” The clone purrs, nuzzling against Keith’s hair.

“What the hell is happening here!?” Lance shrieks, causing the clone with his acute hearing to wince. “Shiro why the fuck aren’t you killing Kuro for kissing Keith?? Keith, why aren’t _you_ killing Kuro for kissing you?? What is going on!?”

Keith sighs and buries his face in the clone’s shoulder. “Oh boy.” He mutters. Kuro purrs and kisses the top of the Red Paladin’s head.

Shiro also heaves a weary sigh and gestures for them all to follow him. “Let’s get this out of the way, then.”

~*~

“You’re having a threesome with your boyfriend and your own clone???” Lance shouts and Keith looks like he’s a second away from punching the Blue Paladin. Shiro pats his shoulder reassuringly and looks back at Lance.

“Not precisely. A threesome implies it’s a one-time thing.”

“And it’s definitely not.” Kuro growls from where he’s crouched next to the Red Paladin’s chair. Keith drops a hand from where he’d been gripping the armrests so he can card his fingers through Kuro’s hair soothingly.

“Then what is happening?” Hunk asks, more confused than anything.

“You guys, it’s not like this should be a surprise. We haven’t been trying to hide it.” Shiro sighs. “We’re all together. In one relationship.”

“Polyamory.” Pidge says, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Being in a relationship with more than one person at a time.”

“Yes! Thank you, Pidge.” Keith groans.

“I don’t like this.” Allura says lowly, and Kuro snorts.

“Of course you don’t like it. You hate my guts and still think I’m planning to kill you all in your sleep.”

Allura just glares at him. What can she say? Shiro knows Kuro’s not wrong.

“Oh, leave them be, princess! Young love is a wonderful thing, and Kuro’s proven to be a great help around here. I think your suspicions can be safely laid to rest.” Coran says.

“I’m still not buying it.” She says, glaring at Kuro, who just yawns under her venomous stare and nuzzles into Keith’s side.

“We’re in a relationship with Kuro. This is not a topic for debate, this is us telling you what’s happening.” Shiro says, voice firm.

“If you don’t like it, tough.” Keith adds. “Now, I’m going to do what I had intended to do before being pinned against a wall and hit the training deck.” He looks down at Kuro. “Care to join me? If you manage to pin me, you can ravish me.”

Kuro grins wolfishly and stands, following after the Red Paladin as he leaves the bridge.

Shiro shakes his head fondly and looks up at everyone’s stunned faces.

“Don’t worry, Kuro’s never managed to pin Keith.” He says, as though that’s what they’re concerned about, then goes about his day.

~*~

That night Keith laughs hysterically. “Dude, that was great. It was just as funny as when they figured out you and I were dating,” he says to Shiro, still giggling.

Shiro sighs and collapses onto the bed. “Easy for you to say. You and Kuro vanished into the training deck. I had to field very awkward questions all day.”

Kuro snickers and sits down next to Shiro, rubbing his back soothingly. “Sorry, Takashi.” He purrs, then freezes. “Um,”

Shiro turns his head and smiles. “That’s the first time you’ve called me Takashi,” he says fondly.

“Is that okay?” Kuro asks quietly.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Keith asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Because, that’s what you call him.” Kuro murmurs.

Shiro sits up and cups the back of Kuro’s head, bringing their foreheads together.

“It’s my name, Kuro. No one really uses it, aside from the people who are closest to me. So you are well within your right to call me Takashi.”

Kuro nods and ducks down to nuzzle into Shiro’s shoulder. Keith climbs over and curls up against Shiro’s other side, wrapping an arm around Kuro’s back.

They sit there in comfortable quiet for a long time before Kuro speaks again.

“Guys?”

“Hm?” Shiro hums sleepily, scratching his nails gently against Kuro’s scalp.

“What… what’s my name?”

Shiro stills, then he and Keith pull back so they can look down at their boyfriend.

“What do you mean, sweetheart?”

Kuro leans back, frowning a little and playing with a loose thread on Shiro’s tank top. “I don’t have a name. Not, not really. I mean, yeah, I have Kuro, but that’s sort of a nickname too, isn’t it? I don’t have a full name like ‘Takashi Shirogane’ or ‘Keith Kogane’.”

“Okay,” Shiro says gently, brushing back Kuro’s fringe, “Do you want a full name?”

Kuro nods. “I want to feel real.”

“Oh sweetheart,” Shiro breathes, cupping his cheek. “You are real.”

“I know but, I want to feel… separate. From you. I don’t just want to be ‘Shiro’s Clone’, you know? I know you guys don’t think of me that way,” He adds hastily, “But, everyone else still does. I want this, so, so maybe I can start to feel… like an actual human being.”

Keith reaches over and takes Kuro’s hand. “If a full name will make you feel more like you belong, than by all means, lets give you one.” He says firmly.

Kuro nods, looking relieved. “You,” He starts, then sighs and looks up at them. “You guys should come up with it, because I have no fucking clue where to start with Earth names. And the only names I know are Galra, and I don’t want that. That isn’t me.”

“No it’s not.” Keith says, and tugs Kuro back against them. “Don’t worry, batman, we’ll brainstorm and figure something out. And it’s gonna be amazing.”

Kuro huffs a laugh. “Thanks.”

Shiro starts murmuring in Japanese, mostly talking to himself about what might be a good fit, but it lulls Kuro to sleep in a matter of moments, with Keith not far behind. He sighs quietly and lays them down in bed where they automatically curl around each other. Shiro though, stays up for a while, considering.

A name for Kuro. Well, it was going to have to be special, and Shiro wanted it to be perfect. So he pulls out his tablet and starts writing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So far this really does feel like all fluff and smut, doesn't it? Well, that's because I accidentally miscounted the number of chapters. Whoops. There will be more plot a couple chapters from now. I swear, stuff actually happens in this story. It's still mostly relationship-centric, but it's plot!


	11. Silver

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello once more, all. Kuro gets a name and gets sappy and gets laid. Twice. Have fun!

Shiro finds Keith on the bridge a few days after Kuro brings up the name thing and blessedly, said man is absent.

“Keith?”

Keith turns and smiles up at him. “Hey, superman. What’s up?”

“I think I’ve got it.” He says, and Keith perks up. He’s left the naming up to Shiro ever since they decided it should be Japanese.

“He’s technically of Japanese descent.” Keith had pointed out. “And something tells me an American name like ‘Kevin’ or ‘Jason’ wouldn’t really fit him.”

They’d both laughed a lot at the thought of that. Yeah, no.

“Tell me.” Keith demands, and Shiro tugs him into an empty room. He tells Keith his idea and his reasoning behind it and Keith beams.

“It’s perfect.”

Shiro nods and kisses Keith. “We’ll tell him tonight?”

Keith kisses him again. “Yeah.”

They stay in the room kissing for a while, but no one else needs to know that.

~*~

Kuro walks into the room and instantly knows something is up. Keith and Shiro are sitting next to each other on the bed and the air is filled with nervous excitement.

“What’s going on?” he asks slowly, letting the door hiss shut behind him.

“Come here, sweetheart.” Shiro murmurs, smiling gently.

Kuro walks over and settles on the bed next to Shiro, raising an eyebrow.

“Guys?”

“I think,” Shiro says slowly, smile widening a bit, “I’ve got your name.”

Kuro’s eyes widen. Oh. He’d almost forgotten about that. It had seemed so silly to bring it up, but, he wanted a connection to Earth, to his humanity, to _them_ , no matter how small.

“Oh?” He asks, shifting uneasily. He’s not sure why it makes him nervous.

“Yeah.” Shiro takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “Your last name was easy. Kurogane, like I’m Shirogane. It is actually a Japanese family name, and that way your nickname makes sense the way mine does.”

Kuro nods. Yeah, that works. He likes that.

“Your first name was a lot harder, and I had to think about it for a long time, but I think,” he glances over at Keith, who nods firmly, then turns back to Kuro. “I think I found one that fits.”

He looks up into Kuro’s eyes for a long moment.

“Arashi.” He says quietly, and Kuro tilts his head, analyzing the sound. “It means ‘storm’ in Japanese,” Shiro continues, “and I think it fits you very well. Because storms can be destructive, and lifegiving. Terrifying, and beautiful.” Shiro smiles, a soft, tiny thing. “Just like you.”

Something breaks inside him, but it’s not painful. It’s warm and soft and calling out for the two men in front of him. Kuro drops his head and blinks, feeling something wet slide down his cheek. He’s crying.

“I, yeah.” He says raggedly, gripping Shiro’s hand. “Yeah, I, I like that.” He swallows thickly and looks back up at Shiro. “Say it again.”

Shiro smiles and leans forwards, pressing their foreheads together. “Arashi,” He whispers, and Kuro chokes on nothing and drags Shiro in for a fierce kiss.

“I love you.” He chokes, and Shiro stills. Kuro reaches past him to drag Keith close as well, he wants them as close as he can get them. He never wants to let them go. They’re his and he’s theirs and he finally _gets it_. He gets all of it, here in this one moment, he understands love, and gods, it’s _wonderful_.

He drags Keith close and kisses him too, causing the Red Paladin to squeak, which is too cute to process right now. “I love both of you so much. Thank you.”

Keith laughs and nuzzles against him. “We love you too, Arashi,” Keith hums and the way he says Kuro’s new name so casually, as if he’s been calling him that the whole time, it snaps something else inside him and he growls, shoving them both back against the mattress.

“I want you both. Now. Right fucking now.” He snarls, gripping them tightly.

Keith tenses and Kuro’s blood turns to ice, worried he’s accidentally triggered something, but then Keith laughs, and Kuro lets himself relax again.

“Well then, have at us.” Keith purrs, sinking back against the sheets.

Kuro tilts his head, then looks at Shiro who shrugs, expression amused. “What do you want us to do?” He asks, and Kuro pauses, considering.

“I want us to have sex.” He says and they both look surprised. “Not sure how it’s gonna work with three of us, but I’m sure we can figure something out.”

“I’m down for some experimenting.” Keith says immediately.

Shiro laughs and pushes at Kuro a little so he can sit up. “I’m sure we can come up with an idea or two.” He says, “But first, let’s get out of our clothes.”

Kuro immediately grabs the hem of Shiro’s white tank top and shoves it up, causing the Black Paladin to laugh again. “Easy, sweetheart, there’s no rush.”

“Judging by the look in his eyes, I’d say there is.” Keith teases, sitting up and holding up his arms. Kuro turns to him instead and promptly strips him out of his shirt, splaying his fingers across smooth, pale skin.

Shiro’s tank top goes sailing over their heads and Kuro releases Keith with one hand so he can grip Shiro’s chest too, causing the Black Paladin to yelp.

Keith giggles again and tugs at Kuro’s shirt. He growls at the realization that in order to remove it, he has to stop touching them, but then also realizes that without clothes, they can touch _him_ too, so he feels it’s worth it. He tears out of his shirt before standing, stripping off the rest of his clothes as well. While the paladins do the same, He crawls back onto the bed and gets his hands back on them, whatever bare patch of skin he can reach. Gods, he’s _starving_ for them.

“If you would stop growling for a moment,” Keith says fondly, running his fingers through Kuro’s fringe. “I have an idea of how we can do this, though you both are probably going to freak out.”

Kuro tilts his head and leans back a little. Shiro sits up and turns to their smaller mate.

“How so?”

“Well,” Keith says, and red begins to creep into his face and down his chest. “Kuro’s never… done this the right way, right? So that needs to be done, like, immediately. But there’s also something I’ve been wanting to do since we all got together and, well, I’m gonna need to work up to it, so that works out.”

“What are you saying, kitten?” Kuro rumbles. Fuck, he can’t stop growling.

“I’m saying,” Keith says and swallows, covering his face with his hands. “I’m saying Kuro should fuck me first, then I want both of you inside me. At the same time.”

Kuro nearly falls off the bed and he’s pretty sure Shiro’s stopped breathing. The Black Paladin turns to him, wide-eyed. “Did we hear the same thing?”

“Yep,” Kuro chokes out.

Keith makes a wordless embarrassed noise and curls up more, knees to chest.

“Baby,” Shiro reaches out and pries Keith’s knees away from his face, then tugs his hands away too. “Are you sure? Won’t that,” Shiro swallows, “Won’t that trigger you?”

Keith shakes his head rapidly. “No, they never… they always went one at a time, thank god for small favors. I might freak out briefly with Kuro because, you know, I’ll be having sex with someone who’s not you and my body’s not accustomed to that, but, once I’m past that…” He shrugs helplessly. “I want to.”

“Shiro?” Kuro asks quietly. Despite loving Keith and learning all there is to know about him, there’s no denying that Shiro’s the one who knows Keith’s limits the best.

Shiro frowns for a long moment. “If anything hurts, if you start panicking…”

“I will tell you both immediately.” Keith promises.

“And we will stop.” Kuro says, before Shiro can, because while he wants it so badly it _hurts_ , he’s still terrified of losing control and hurting them. But, but he wants this. He wants to be with them. They trust him with this, so maybe… maybe he can trust himself too.

“I know, Arashi.” Keith says gently, and Kuro shudders again.

“Okay,” Shiro sighs. “You know your own limits better than we do, but Keith, one word from you and we’ll stop everything. Alright?”

“I know.” Keith repeats. “I trust you both.”

And that, more than anything, makes Kuro’s heart melt into a puddle at the Red and Black Paladins’ feet.

~*~

Keith’s not gonna lie, he’s a little nervous. Having someone who’s not Shiro inside him – even someone who he loves as much as he loves Shiro – is a little daunting to think about. But he knows Kuro would never hurt him. He trusts him with his life, the same way he trusts Shiro.

The thought of taking both of them at once is actually less daunting, surprisingly. That, that he is looking forward to. It’s probably going to hurt but god, he’s pretty damn sure it will be worth it.

They’re in the same position they had been the night Kuro got to be a “hands-on” voyeur, but this time, it’s Shiro’s lap he’s lying in, with Kuro between his thighs, looking very nervous.

“’M not gonna bite, batman.” He murmurs.

“I know. I’m more worried about _me_.” Kuro mutters.

“Well, you know how to finger me. That’s a start.” Keith reminds him, and enjoys the sighs of the clone flushing red.

“Yeah.” He mutters.

Shiro laughs quietly then reaches back and opens the hidden drawer above the bed, pulling out their bottle of lube and tossing it to the other man who catches it almost without looking. Kuro chirps and examines the bottle in his hands.

“Oh right.” He mumbles, blush deepening.

“Yeah, last time you didn’t have to worry about that. Shiro’s come was working just fine as lube.” Keith says cheerfully, and _both_ of his boyfriends go red at that. Keith snickers and relaxes against Shiro, wiggling his hips.

“Come on.”

Kuro swallows audibly before popping the cap, pouring the cool gel out onto his human fingers. He tilts his head as he rubs them together, chirping at the sensation.

“Is this enough?” He asks, looking up at Shiro.

“It is.” Shiro assures. “Remember, start with one and work your way up.”

Kuro nods hesitantly, then shuffles a bit so he’s laying down on his stomach, chin resting on Keith’s thigh.

“You okay?” He asks, and Keith nods.

Kuro nods back and takes a shaky breath, before stroking his fingers over Keith’s hole gently. Keith sighs and relaxes, reminding his body that yes, he’s aware this isn’t Shiro, but he trusts this one too so _calm the fuck down_.

But then Kuro presses a finger inside and Keith melts.

He sighs and tilts his head back against Shiro’s thighs, opening up for his other lover easily. Kuro gasps a little but then pushes his finger further in and nudges it to the left, brushing right up against Keith’s prostate.

Well he remembered that at least.

Keith chokes and clenches down, and Kuro shivers. “Okay?” He breathes again and Keith nods.

“Yeah, yeah, more than okay.” He promises. “You can add another. I’m alright.”

Kuro raises an eyebrow and continues to prod at him with just the one digit for several moments before Keith groans.

_“Arashi_ , please!”

The sound of his new name spurs Kuro on and he growls lowly, leaning down to suck a bruise into Keith’s thigh as he slides in a second finger. Keith gasps and turns his head to muffle tiny, pleased sounds into Shiro’s forearm where it’s cradling the side of his head.

Kuro purrs against his thigh and nips at the abused skin. “Good kitten.” He murmurs, and Keith melts.

Only to yelp again when Shiro decides he’s done watching and tweaks one of his nipples.

“Aw, baby,” Shiro teases as Keith tries – and fails because of his whimpering – to glare up at his boyfriend. “I’m sorry, I thought you liked when I did this.” He pinches Keith’s other nipple at the same time Kuro jabs down on his prostate again and Keith arches off the bed with a loud moan.

“Fuck,” Kuro whispers.

“Beautiful, isn’t he?” Shiro murmurs fondly, stroking his thumb over Keith’s nipple gently.

“Gods, yes.” Kuro says. “Both of you are.”

Shiro blushes and Keith grins at the sight. “Isn’t that a little narcissistic of you?” he asks, and Kuro shakes his head.

“Nah, you’re way hotter than me.”

Shiro chokes, and Keith giggles between them. “God, I love you both.” He sighs. He’s so relaxed that he hardly notices when Kuro slips in a third finger, stretching him out carefully.

“Keith?” Kuro asks several moments later, and Keith nods before Kuro can ask.

“I’m ready.”

“Are you sure?” Kuro says, and Keith can see the muted fear and worry in his eyes.

Keith holds his arms out. “Come here.”

Kuro slips his fingers out and leans up so he’s hovering over Keith. He pulls the anxious clone down and kisses him slowly, waiting until Kuro’s tense muscles relax before whispering “You are not going to hurt me, Arashi.”

Kuro whines quietly and nuzzles his cheek briefly before pulling back, nodding. Then he looks up at Shiro, eyes narrowed. “You’ll stop me if I do?” He asks.

“You won’t.” Shiro assures. “But I can step in if need be.”

Kuro nods, then reaches out for the lube again, coating his cock and wincing at the chill. Then he tosses the bottle aside and crawls up Keith’s body again, pressing their foreheads together.

“Keith, I,” Kuro starts, but pauses.

“I love you.” Keith murmurs. “And I trust you.”

Kuro nods once, then bites his lip as he guides his erection to Keith’s entrance and presses inside.

Keith, as he predicted, shuts down briefly at the intrusion as his body panics. But no, _no_ , this is good. This is okay. Kuro is safe and he loves him and it’s all okay.

He comes back quickly, with Shiro rubbing little circles against his shoulders and Kuro’s head bowed next to his own.

“Okay?” They ask at the same time, and Keith giggles, relaxing.

“I’m great.” He promises. “I’m here, and I know who I’m with.” He reaches up and slides his fingers through Kuro’s hair slowly. “Come on, Arashi.” He murmurs, kissing Kuro gently. “Make love to me.”

Kuro’s breath hitches, and then he slowly moves forwards, pressing himself further into Keith.

Keith sighs when he’s fully settled and places gentle kisses along his neck. “Feels good.” He murmurs. And it does.

Kuro shudders and presses his face against Keith’s neck with a low whine. “I,” He starts, then swallows thickly. “It’s never felt like this.” He whispers.

“Like what?” Shiro asks, carding his own fingers through Kuro’s hair and lacing them with Keith’s.

“Like,” Kuro pauses for a long moment, “Like coming home.”

Keith’s breath hitches, but Shiro just hums. “Exactly.”

Keith’s face burns a deep red but thankfully neither man chooses to comment. “You, you can move.” Keith murmurs. “I’m good.”

Kuro nods against his neck but stays still for another minute or two. Keith doesn’t push him, knowing this has to be a little overwhelming, having sex feel _good_ for the first time in his life. Keith remembers that feeling.

Eventually, Kuro’s hips pull back slowly, and he presses back in just as slow. Keith sighs and lowers his arms to wrap around his lover’s neck instead, content to let this be a slow burn. Shiro’s human fingers continue to stroke through Kuro’s hair gently while his Galra hand traces little patterns on Keith’s collarbones.

It’s gentle and sweet and slow, and honestly? Keith wouldn’t have it any other way.

Eventually, though, Keith wants to come. So he tilts his hips up a little and tightens around Kuro’s length until the clone growls again, biting down on Keith’s shoulder.

“Come on, Kuro,” He purrs. “You know I’m not made of glass.”

“No,” Kuro says, voice rough with want, “You’re definitely not.”

~*~

Kuro’s body is lit up like a livewire. Ever since he first pushed in to Keith, he’s been trembling and he can’t stop. God, this is so much better than anything he’s ever experienced, being settled fully inside someone he loves. And, god, Keith’s beautiful spread out before him. He wants to bury himself inside his mate and take and take and _take_ until Keith is a shivering moaning mess beneath him, but, no. No, he can’t. He could never risk hurting the precious human in his arms.

He goes slow, maddeningly slow, but fuck, it feels good. He can feel the drag of his cock against Keith’s walls and gets the Red Paladin to make the sweetest noises when he brushes against his prostate. And judging by the fingers still running through his hair, Shiro is pleased with what’s happening. That’s enough. Kuro realizes with a start that this is more than enough for him to get off. And wow, love is a crazy thing, and so is The Good Sex.

Well, he thought it was enough before Keith clamped down around him. He blacks out for a second and realizes he’s bitten Keith’s shoulder. Thankfully not hard enough to draw blood, but still. He’s worried until he hears Keith’s voice, low and pleased in his ear, essentially telling him to pick up the pace.

“What do you want, kitten?” He purrs and laps at the bitemark he left.

“You.” Keith says simply. Kuro melts a little.

“How?” He asks instead.

Keith tugs him away from his neck so he’s looking down at the Red Paladin and sees him grin wickedly.

“Harder.”

Kuro can do that.

He snarls and kisses his grinning mate, pulling his hips back and snapping them forwards harshly. Keith groans against his mouth and the fingers in his hair tighten. Kuro starts, pulling away from Keith to glance up at Shiro, worried he was too harsh.

But Shiro is smirking, scent filled with desire. “Make him scream.” Shiro says lowly, and Kuro and Keith _both_ moan at that.

So Kuro sets out to do as the Black Paladin commanded, thrusting roughly – but never too rough – into the writhing body below him, pressing biting kisses to the column of Keith’s throat. Every time he’s worried he’s been too harsh or gone too far, Keith or Shiro will murmur sweet words or praises to him and his fears are laid to rest once more.

Maybe they were right. He could never hurt them.

Soon enough, he feels the heat low in his gut that lets him know he’s close. By the way Keith’s gasping, he can’t be far off either. Kuro starts to shift, trying to work a hand free from where they’re anchored at Keith’s hip and by his head, but Shiro beats him to it, reaching between their bodies and taking a hold of Keith, jerking him off in quick, firm movements that have Keith whining.

“Kuro,” he pants, leaning up to nip at Kuro’s jaw, “Come inside me.”

Kuro growls, burying his face in Keith’s neck and comes hard, deep inside his lover. Keith sighs happily, muscles constricting around him to milk him dry. Kuro faintly registers wetness between them and realizes Shiro had successfully gotten Keith off.

He sighs and purrs quietly, wrapping his arms tightly around Keith’s waist.

Keith grumbles quietly but Kuro realizes it’s not because of him when he feels a kiss pressed to his hair.

“I’ll be right back.” Shiro promises, then ducks into the bathroom.

Kuro chirps and tries to sit up, but Keith grips him tightly, keeping him pinned.

“I should be the one cleaning up.” He protests, but Keith silences him with a tiny peck to his lips.

“Nah, Shiro loves taking care of me. Or, _us_ now, I suppose. He likes doing it, it makes him happy. So let him dote. It’s sweet.”

Kuro hums and goes back to nuzzling Keith’s throat.

Shiro returns a moment later with a damp cloth.

“Hey sweetheart,” He coos, rubbing Kuro’s back gently. “Can you roll over for me? I gotta clean you both up.”

Kuro groans quietly but releases Keith and rolls over, shuddering when he slips out of Keith. He falls onto his back with a ragged sigh and opens his eyes, blinking up at Shiro as the man starts wiping down Keith’s stomach, then Kuro’s.

Kuro purrs at the feeling. His mate is taking care of them. Kuro has such good mates. His brain is fuzzy and warm and he chirps happily, rolling over and nuzzling into the sheets that smell like the three of them. Like home.

He comes back to the present when Keith makes a protesting noise. Kuro opens an eye to see the Red Paladin stilling Shiro’s hand when he goes to clean Keith’s leaking hole, and gods if _that_ sight doesn’t make a pleased, possessive growl rumble out of him.

“Don’t.” Keith says, opening his eyes and looking up at Shiro.

Shiro rocks back on his heels and raises an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Don’t you remember what I said I wanted?” Keith says, grinning. “Once Kuro and I catch our breaths, I want you _both_ to fuck me.”

Kuro stops breathing. Right, Keith had said that, and Kuro’s brain had malfunctioned at the image, much like it’s doing now.

Okay, his mates are going to kill him, but fuck, what a way to go.

~*~

Shiro’s brain shuts down briefly at Keith’s reminder before he reboots. “Right.” He chokes out, and sets the cloth aside, laying down beside Keith and splaying a hand over his heaving stomach.

Kuro rolls to his side as well, yellow eyes half-lidded and hazy. He purrs quietly and also splays a hand over Keith’s stomach, lacing his fingers with Shiro’s. He feels the sharp tips of metal claws scrape against his skin but doesn’t pay them much mind. Kuro would never use them.

“You okay, sweetheart?” Shiro murmurs, and Kuro hums.

“Yeah, I… yeah, Takashi. I’m… I’m great.” He mumbles, nosing against Keith’s shoulder.

Keith laughs and reaches up to cradle the back of Kuro’s head. “Now you get it?” He asks fondly.

Kuro purrs louder and kisses Keith’s shoulder. “Amazing.” He mumbles.

“Aw, look, sex makes him all sleepy and cuddly.” Keith coos. “Takashi, can we keep him?”

Shiro laughs quietly and reaches over to comb through Kuro’s hair, causing the other man’s purring to increase even more.

“I suppose we have to now.” Shiro hums thoughtfully. “I think he’s imprinted on us.”

“Damn right.” Kuro mutters. “You two are stuck with me.”

“Good.” Shiro says, then leans over and kisses their sleepy lover. Kuro purrs against his mouth and opens easily when Shiro slides his tongue inside. They kiss lazily for several long minutes until Keith taps at them.

They both pull away and look at their third lover curiously, who is sitting up and grinning at them.

“Shall we start on the next event?” He purrs, shaking the lube bottle he’s holding.

Shiro’s breath catches and Kuro freezes. Then they both scramble upright and crush Keith between them, kissing at any patch of skin they can reach.

Keith giggles quietly and tilts his head to the side to give them more of his neck to work with. He relaxes fully in their arms, trusting them with his wellbeing and Shiro feels a swell of affection so strong it leaves him a little breathless.

“Arashi,” Shiro murmurs, and Kuro looks up at him, chirping in question. “You go first, and I’ll finger him open wider.”

Kuro flushes but frowns. “You haven’t come yet tonight, Shiro. You should go first, I can-”

 Shiro shakes his head quickly. “If I tried to push into him right now, I wouldn’t last.”

Keith and Kuro both shiver at the words, the latter growling and lifting Keith up a little.

“You still open for me, kitten?” He purrs, and Keith nods.

“Please,” he gasps, and Shiro helps lower their lover down onto Kuro’s waiting cock, fully hard once more. Apparently, partially-Galra clones have less of a refractory period. Even Keith is only half-hard, but he sighs blissfully as he sinks down. He buries his face into Kuro’s shoulder as he settles in the other man’s lap.

Shiro gives them a minute to adjust, pouring lube onto his fingers and letting them warm up in the meantime.

“Ready for more, baby?” Shiro murmurs, kissing the patch of skin behind Keith’s ear.

“Yeah.” Keith sighs, draping his arms over Kuro’s shoulders and tilting his hips back for Shiro.

Kuro purrs and sets his chin on Keith’s shoulder, watching with interest as Shiro lowers his hand, finding the place where his lovers are joined and rubbing against the point gently. Both of them groan and shift, and Shiro hushes them.

“Easy.” He soothes. “You’ve both got to stay relaxed for me, okay?”

“Yeah,” Keith sighs, letting his muscles go limp. Kuro just nods, still watching Shiro.

“Okay,” Shiro breathes out a shaky sigh, tracing Keith’s stretched rim with one finger before slowly pressing it inside.

Keith and Kuro both moan at the intrusion, tightening their arms around each other.

“Okay?” Shiro asks and receives twin whimpers and nods.

Shiro works the finger around for a moment, letting Keith get used to it, then, with his permission, slides a second one in.

Kuro growls and Keith chokes and they’re both trembling violently at the increased pressure. Shiro works them slowly, scissoring his fingers carefully, trying to sooth Keith into relaxing further with gentle praises and a hand rubbing his back. Kuro assists by nuzzling Keith’s neck and rocking his hips up in tiny little movements that must be jostling Keith’s prostate, judging by the little whimpers coming out of his mouth.

“Another,” Keith pants several minutes later. “Takashi, another.”

Shiro kisses the back of Keith’s neck and presses a third finger inside. Keith’s rim spasms around them and Kuro chokes on air, growling and tightening his grip on Keith’s hips. Keith shudders out a sigh and rocks down on the stretch.

“Come on, Takashi,” Keith moans, but Shiro shakes his head, despite Keith not being able to see him.

“No, Keith. I am not taking any chances here.” He says firmly. He keeps stretching Keith for another few minutes, then he adds a fourth finger for good measure. The whole time Keith is whining and panting and pleading, biting down on Kuro’s shoulder. Kuro is remaining eerily quiet, but Shiro can see the tremor in his muscles that betray just how much restraint he’s exerting by remaining still.

Finally, Shiro deems Keith ready and slides his fingers out. Both of his lovers moan at the loss, and Shiro is briefly mesmerized by Keith’s over-stretched rim clamping down, seemingly no longer satisfied with Kuro’s dick alone.

Shiro pours more lube into his hand and slicks his cock, biting back a moan as he finally touches himself. He shuffles forwards until he’s pressed along Keith’s back, Galra hand smoothing down his side while his human hand guides him to Keith’s already occupied hole.

“Are you ready?” he murmurs, kissing Keith’s neck.

“God, yes,” Keith breathes.

“Keith,” Shiro says, voice hardening, “If this is too much, if it hurts you, you will tell us, right?”

“Of course.” Keith sighs, “Now please, Takashi, _please_.”

How could Shiro ever say no to that? He takes a deep breath and pushes past the tight ring of muscle.

Keith tenses in their arms instantly, making a tiny broken noise, and Shiro and Kuro give each other a panicked look.

“Keith?” Shiro says sharply, already moving to pull out (tight and hot and so _good_ as it may be, it’s not worth Keith’s safety).

“Wait!” Keith chokes out, gripping Shiro’s wrist and tugging him close. “Wait, I, I’m fine, it, it hurts but not bad, I promise, just give me a minute, please please, just give me a minute.”

“Okay, baby, shh,” Shiro leans around and kisses Keith’s cheek.

Kuro whines and tilts Keith’s face up, kissing him gently. “You’re crying, kitten,” he says weakly.

“I’m okay, I _swear_ I’m okay,” Keith hisses. “It’s just… _fuck_ , so much!” He clamps down on them and they both bite out a moan.

A long, tense minute of silence descends upon the three of them, all trembling with tension as Keith slowly relaxes. Then, finally, a ragged whisper:

“Move.”

They move.

The two of them develop a rhythm very quickly, as soon as one pulls out, the other pushes in, never leaving Keith empty for a moment. He pants and moans and screams between them at the constant assault on his prostate, throwing his head back on Shiro’s shoulder even as he rakes his nails down Kuro’s back.

God, Keith feels incredible around him, and feeling Kuro’s cock pressed tightly against his own is fantastic. It’s heaven and once he’s sure that Keith really is okay, he lets himself enjoy it. He nibbles his way along Keith’s neck and reaches around to tease his nipples. Keith sobs between them, voice loud and unhindered as he screams his pleasure and Shiro is so very, very glad the paladins’ quarters are pretty well soundproofed.

Kuro is growling again, biting at Keith’s neck and sucking dark bruises into his pale flesh, and Shiro realizes hazily that this is a fantastic idea, so he starts to do the same on the other side. Keith chokes and writhes and clenches down on them, gripping them both tightly.

“I, god, I love you. I love both of you. Fuck, you both feel so good, I can’t- I need to come! Please, please let me come!” Keith sobs.

Kuro and Shiro exchange a glance, then they both reach down with their human hands and fist Keith’s cock, stroking slow and firm as their strokes inside him and he wails, coming between them after only a few moments.

That causes him to clamp his muscles down around them and that’s enough for Shiro, who has been walking the razor’s edge since they started. He thrusts erratically three more times and comes with a low groan inside his lover, nuzzling into his shoulder.

Kuro growls, at both the feel of Keith clenching and Shiro’s come and goes for another few moments before he too is stilling and shuddering, and Shiro gasps when he feels the other man’s come coat his cock.

They sit there for several long minutes, trying to catch their breath, then Shiro sighs and tilts them over onto their sides, all moaning as they’re jostled. Kuro huffs and slips out first, rolling onto his back and stretching. Shiro pulls out next and immediately slips two fingers back into Keith, who shudders and whimpers pathetically.

“Takashi,” he whines, and Kuro raises an eyebrow.

“The fuck are you doing?” he asks.

“Making sure there’s no blood.” He says. He probes around Keith’s walls as gently as he can, then pulls his fingers out. There’s a small trace of blood, but it seems like it was just from the initial penetration, and when Shiro asks, Keith assures him he isn’t in pain.

Shiro rolls out of bed on shaky legs and gets another washcloth wet before returning to bed and wiping all of them down gently.

He throws the cloth to the floor and they all curl up under the blankets, pressed tightly together with Keith cradled in the middle. Kuro sleepily orders the lights off and they’re cast into darkness.

There is silence for a long moment before Kuro murmurs “I love you both so, so much.”

“Love you.” Keith mumbles, clearly mostly asleep.

“We love you too, Arashi.” Shiro murmurs, taking Kuro’s hand and squeezing. “Go to sleep, sweetheart. We’ll be here when you wake up.”

Shiro can only see the gleam of Kuro’s eyes in the darkness, but they crinkle a little, and he knows the other man is smiling. “I know, Takashi.” He murmurs, then the yellow glow disappears as Kuro closes his eyes, purring steadily as he drifts off.

Shiro watches his sleeping lovers for a long time, then settles and wraps an arm around both of them, his own eyes closing, and he smiles as he drifts off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does it still count as having a plot if it really only comes into play in the last two or three chapters? Hell if I know. But it will come. There's a little of it in the next chapter (along with more smut and a little angst), so look forward to that I guess? Anyway have a good week and I'll be back on Sunday with more of this mess!


	12. Vanilla

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beginning rumblies of plotishness, some angst and panic, and some more smut. Enjoy!

Kuro wakes slowly, feeling warm and tingly and so, so happy. He raises his head to see that, somehow, Shiro is still in bed with them and he purrs. He loves his mates. He wants to keep them here safe and warm in their nest.

He dozes for a little while before Shiro stirs on the other side of Keith.

Kuro purrs as the Black Paladin opens his eyes and looks over at him with a smile.

“Morning, sweetheart.” Shiro rasps, leaning over Keith to kiss him. Kuro’s purr rumbles a little deeper and Keith groans.

“Shh,” He mumbles, reaching over and patting Kuro’s chest. “Love your purring, batman, but it’s so _loud_. Need to sleep. Shh.”

“Sorry, kitten.” Kuro rumbles.

Shiro smiles and kisses Keith’s temple before hauling himself out of bed. Or trying to. As soon as Kuro sees him swing his legs over the side, he growls and latches on to the other man’s biceps, pulling him back down into the sheets.

_“Mine_.” Kuro hisses.

Keith grins, eyes still closed, and Shiro looks up at him in fond amusement.

“Yes, Arashi.” He says indulgently. “But I still need to get up.”

Kuro shakes his head again and crawls over Keith – carefully – and smooshes Shiro in the middle, wrapping his limbs around the Black Paladin to keep him in place.

“Stay.” Kuro growls.

“Kuro-”

Kuro growls again and bites at Shiro’s neck. “Stay. Nest. Safe.”

“I think we triggered some Galra instincts last night.” Keith says, smile clear in his voice. “I’m not complaining though. If it’s alright with you and your nesting instincts, batman, I’m just gonna go back to sleep.”

Kuro rumbles his approval and Keith rolls over, throwing an arm and a leg over Shiro before drifting off again.

“Arashi,” Shiro tries one more time, but Kuro kisses him quiet.

“Nest.” He repeats, like it explains everything. Which, of course it does, doesn’t his silly mate get that? “Safe.” He adds, for further clarification. Then, knowing it’s a little underhanded but desperate to get Shiro to cooperate, “Please.”

Shiro goes limp in his arms and he sighs heavily, turning his head to kiss Kuro’s forehead. “Okay. I guess I can sleep in a little.”

Kuro purrs happily and nuzzles down into Shiro’s chest, taking Keith’s hand and squeezing it gently.

Shiro falls back to sleep several long minutes later, but Kuro remains awake for a long time, looking over his mates fondly. He frowns when he realizes that while Keith is marked up very well by both himself and Shiro, Shiro is hardly marked at all. He decides to go about fixing that.

Which leads to Shiro waking up with a startled moan and a half-hard cock, which in turn causes Keith to awaken.

And then they go for round three.

~*~

A few hours later, Shiro sighs and tries to catch his breath. Kuro is a purring lump on top of them, starfished out in order to lay over both him and Keith. Keith seems to have accepted the fact that Kuro is not going to let them leave the bed and is already dozing off again. Shiro sighs again and runs his fingers through Kuro’s hair. He can’t really be mad. Spending a day in bed with his lovers is by no means a hardship, but he figures he should have at least let someone know what was going on.

Especially when Hunk comes in around lunch time.

“Hey, you guys okay? I brought you food because you missed breakfast and _oh my god!_ ” The poor Yellow Paladin yelps and jumps back. “I’m sorry!”

Kuro blinks at him sleepily and yawns, ignoring the fact that his bare ass is in full view of the Yellow Paladin. Thankfully the way he’s lying covers Keith and Shiro pretty well.

“Hi, Hunk.” Shiro says, already tired of today. “Thanks for the food. We’re kind of… trapped, but we’ll be back on track tomorrow.”

“Trapped? Are you two okay? Did Kuro snap or something?”

Kuro growls and nuzzles into Shiro’s neck.

Shiro sighs. “No, no, he’s just… he wants us to stay where he can keep an eye on us, I think? He’s been a little out of it all day, but he keeps telling us we’re where we’ll be ‘safe’, so I think it’s more about that than anything remotely sinister.”

Kuro huffs and nods against Shiro’s neck.

“Okay.” Hunk says nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “You sure you guys are okay?”

“We’re peachy.” Keith yawns, leaning up a little and waving at Hunk. “Don’t worry, Hunk. Kuro’s not gonna hurt us.”

Kuro growls again and tightens his hold on them.

_“Mine_.” He hisses. He’s also been saying that a lot. It’s true, though.

Shiro waves the Yellow Paladin off. “Just tell the others to take a day and barring an emergency, not to bother us. Okay?”

“Okay,” Hunk says slowly. “Just, let us know if you need anything.”

“Thanks, but we’re fine.” Keith says, scratching his nails through Kuro’s hair, causing the other man to purr quietly.

Hunk nods shortly, sets the plates he’d been carrying onto the nearby desk, then darts out the door.

“Hey, didn’t we lock that?” Keith asks vaguely.

“I don’t think Kuro remembered to before we ambushed him.” Shiro says and leans back against the pillows again.

Kuro purrs louder and licks at Shiro’s neck. “Mates.” He coos, and Shiro smiles, pressing a kiss to the side of his head.

“Love you, sweetheart.”

Kuro’s purr escalates into a rumble. And then they dive into round four.

~*~

When Kuro finally allows them out of the room the next day, they are _covered_ in hickies. Keith for one doesn’t mind. Everyone else in the castle already knew what the three of them were up to, right? Shiro seems ridiculously embarrassed about it and kept blushing all throughout breakfast.

For most of the morning the others seemed content to ignore the dark marks covering their fellow paladins’ necks. Until Keith’s shirt was lifted up when he collapsed backwards onto the sofa and everyone saw his entire torso looked as bad as his neck.

“Dude.” Pidge says, giving Kuro a classic “what the fuck” look.

Kuro shrugs and tugs Keith up so his head is resting in the other man’s lap. “What? I’m a possessive bastard.”

“We can see that.” Hunk says, dutifully not looking at any of them.

Shiro makes a muffled distressed noise and covers his face with both hands. Keith yawns and settles into Kuro’s lap. Kuro just grins.

Keith is very amused when the others can’t look at him for the rest of the day.

~*~

In the weeks following, they have sex _a lot._ Kuro seems to have gotten over his fear of losing control around them (for the most part; he still flinches when he thinks he’s been to rough), and now seems to crave the contact. Keith and Shiro are happy to oblige. Aside from a newly discovered libido, Kuro becomes even more cuddly and determined not to let the other two out of his sight.

So when they’re lured down to a misty, rocky planet by an unknown distress signal, Kuro comes too. Shiro’s sent the other three in the direction of some lights they’d seen upon entering the atmosphere while he and his lovers go to look for the signal source.

“I don’t like this.” Kuro growls. Shiro looks back at him and raises an eyebrow, getting sidetracked as he looks the other man up and down. He has to admit; Kuro looks good. They’d fabricated his armor from the same machines that produce the Voltron armor. The set they’d fashioned for Kuro looks remarkably similar to the suit Shiro himself is wearing except with inverted coloring, and the Voltron symbol is absent from the chest piece. Shiro and Keith had both thought he looked fantastic.

Shiro shakes himself out of ogling his boyfriend. “Don’t like what?”

“Any of this. Something feels wrong about this whole scenario. There are no signs of civilization around, and the princess didn’t pick up any life signs or ships. The whole thing screams ‘trap’.”

“Allura said the fog has some sort of chemical that makes it hard for the scanners to pick up anything.” Shiro reminds him. “And they may be refugees which would explain the lack of civilization.”

“I don’t know, Shiro. I think I agree with Kuro.” Keith says on his other side. “If there were people here wanting Voltron’s help, they should have come out when we flew over. Or at least sent an envoy. Kinda hard to mistake the lions for anything else.”

Shiro frowns. Kuro and Keith have the best instincts of anyone he’s ever met. If one of them had said something, he could maybe chalk it up to their tendency towards over-caution. But both of them?

“Keep your eyes peeled.” He says quietly.

They creep through the mist and eventually find a cave where the signal seems to be coming from, but the cave is shallow enough that they can see there’s nothing inside except a blinking transmitter.

“Told you.” Kuro mutters.

He and Keith enter the cave to grab the transmitter and look for any signs of who left it while Shiro radios the others.

“I thought as much.” Pidge sighs when Shiro explains it looks like a set-up. “Those lights we saw? It’s a malfunctioning Galra transport ship. We’re downloading the files now. Tell Keith and Kuro to grab the transmitter.”

“Will do. Rendezvous at our location when you’re done. I don’t like being separated.”

“Sure thing, Shiro.”

Shiro sighs and turns to call out to Keith and Kuro when a sudden rumble rocks the ground beneath their feet. Shiro staggers and falls to his knees as the rumbling increases. He hears shouts of “oh shit!” and “Keith!” before a loud rolling crash sound behind him.

He pushes himself up and whirls around towards the cave, and his stomach drops.

The entrance is caved in, and there is absolutely no way to get through.

“Keith!” Shiro shouts. “Kuro!”

No answer.

~*~

Keith groans and blinks his eyes open, staring up at a pair of glowing yellow eyes hovering above him.

“Did we really just get trapped in a cave-in set up by the Galra?” he asks blearily, and Kuro growls.

“Yes.”

“Well shit.” Keith props up on his elbows and looks around. “I can’t see a damn thing.”

“I can.” Kuro assures. “Which means at least a little light is getting in, which also means air.”

“That’s something.” Keith sighs, then frowns. “Did you shield me from the rubble?”

“Of course I did. I’m a lot sturdier than you are.” Kuro huffs. “And besides, I’d never let anything happen to you or Shiro.”

Keith smiles fondly and leans up to press a kiss to Kuro’s jaw. He was aiming for his mouth, but pitch black does not help with aim.

“Wait.” Keith says, pulling back. “Oh shit, Shiro!”

Kuro hisses and Keith can feel him tense. “Was he far enough away to avoid the rocks?”

“I think so.” Keith turns on his radio. “Shiro? Shiro can you hear me?”

“Keith!” Shiro responds instantly, relief clear in his voice. “Baby are you okay? God, please, tell me you’re both okay.”

“We’re peachy.” Kuro grumbles on his own radio. “Just trapped in a cave. No big deal.”

“We’re not hurt, just dusty and a little cramped.” Keith clarifies.

“Oh thank god.” Shiro sighs. “Do you have airflow?”

“I can see some cracks, so I think so.” Kuro tells him, leaning forwards and resting his head against Keith’s chest.

Keith wraps an arm around his shoulders and looks around, still unable to see anything. “I can’t see shit, but Kuro can. We’re okay for the moment.”

“Okay, the others are on their way, and I let them know what’s happened. Pidge and Hunk are already trying to science it out.”

“Can you not just bring in the lions? Aren’t they huge with massive jaws that could move a lot of rubble?” Kuro asks.

“We already thought of that.” Pidge pipes up suddenly. They must have come close enough to pick up on their signal. “But even Green would be too large. We could accidentally push the rubble in further while trying to scoop it out and crush you both.”

“Well fuck.” Kuro mutters.

“We’ve gotta get back to the lions and maybe even the castle to analyze the cave structure and how the rubble has fallen. We don’t want to risk doing something that would shift the rubble and hurt you guys or cut off your air supply. We’ll be back as soon as we can. Shiro, are you coming?”

“I’m staying with them.” Shiro says firmly.

“Figured. Well, the three of us are going to go ahead back to the lions. Hang tight you two.”

Keith sighs in agitation and reaches up to pull his helmet off, making himself a little more comfortable. He reaches out for Kuro’s as well and tugs it off the other man, setting it next to his own then running his fingers through Kuro’s hair.

Looks like they’re in for a long, boring few hours.

~*~

Shiro sits outside the cave in, as close to his lovers as he can get, and talks to them. Well, he mostly talks to Keith with Kuro growling or humming every so often. He ends up telling some stories he hadn’t gotten to before when they were telling them outside Kuro’s cell. Like his years with Adam, and their subsequent breakup.

“He’s an ass. I never really liked him. He seemed too know-it-all-ish.” Keith huffs. “I still wanna punch him.”

“No, Keith.” Shiro sighs, smiling fondly.

He expects Kuro to chime in, something about how he’ll do it for Keith. He’d been growling during the entire story, but he remains strangely quiet.

“Arashi?” he murmurs.

“You okay, batman? You’re kinda, squeezing me.” Keith says slowly.

A long beat of silence. Then a low, agonized whine.

“Kuro?” Shiro barks, turning to face the rubble, wishing desperately he could see inside.

“Hey, hey, come on, batman, look at me. What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Keith murmurs.

Another quiet whimper.

“Arashi, sweetheart, please _please_ talk to us.” Shiro pleads.

Another long pause. “I,” Kuro chokes out eventually. “Did I ever tell you guys, what she did? When she was unhappy with me?” he says shakily.

Shiro’s stomach drops and he hears Keith hiss.

“She,” Kuro swallows audibly. “She’d hurt me, of course. That was fine. I can handle pain. It’s part of who I am, but after… she’d put me in ‘solitary confinement’ and you,” he laughs a little, but the sound is tense. “You think that’d be good, right? Considering what happened in the communal cell. But, god, I hated it. It was tiny and dark and I felt so _trapped_ and I would claw at the walls until my fingers bled trying to get out and…” Kuro whines again, and the sound ends in what can only be a sob.

“You’re claustrophobic.” Shiro whispers in dawning horror. “Oh god.”

Kuro barks another humorless laugh. “I don’t know what that means, but, sure.”

“Afraid of being enclosed in small spaces. Because of your trauma.” Keith clarifies. “Like I’m scared of being touched, or how I used to be scared of sex.”

“Yeah, that sounds right.” Kuro says faintly.

“Shit.” Keith says suddenly.

“Keith?” Shiro barks, pressing his hands against the rock, like that will help him comfort his lover.

“He’s hyperventilating. And shaking like a fucking leaf. Shh,” Keith hushes Kuro when he starts whimpering. “It’s okay, Kuro. I’m here, okay? It’s gonna be okay.”

Shiro frowns and adjusts some settings for the radio so he, Keith and Kuro are on a locked, private channel. He knows the other man would hate for the others to hear him falling apart if they came back.

“Breathe, sweetheart.” He murmurs, once he’s gotten it set up.

Suddenly, he hears a scrabbling sound and another high-pitched whine, and Keith shouts.

“Kuro! Hey, no, stop!”

“Keith?” Shiro barks.

“Shit, he was trying to dig through the rock. Hey, come on, Arashi, hey,” There is the sound of shifting fabric, and Shiro can imagine that Keith has taken Kuro into his arms. “I’m here, okay? And Shiro is right outside. You are not alone.”

“I can’t _get out_.” Kuro chokes.

“But you will.” Shiro soothes, his heart breaking for his lover. “You’ll both get out. It’s going to be okay, sweetheart. Keith and I are with you, and we are not leaving. You aren’t alone, and we’ll be here until you get out and I can hold you both tight and never let you go.”

A pause.

“His breathing’s slowing, but he’s still trembling. Fuck, Takashi, there’s nothing in here to distract him. He’s gonna work himself up again.”

“Then _find_ something to keep him calm.” Shiro urges. “Think, Keith. You have to find a way to keep him distracted. What could keep him distracted?”

There is a long moment of silence again. “Well,” Keith says, dragging out the word a little sheepishly.

Shiro laughs a little when he realizes what Keith’s implying. “Oh god, why did I even ask?”

Kuro laughs weakly. “You, you kinda set yourself up for that one, babe.” He says shakily.

“Well, I mean, it’s certainly doable.” Keith says, and Shiro can hear the smile in his voice.

“Lube.” Kuro mumbles.

“Gotcha covered, batman.”

There is a rustling noise, and another choked laugh from Kuro. “Son of a bitch, kitten.”

Shiro raises an eyebrow. “You keep _lube_ in your paladin armor?”

“Eh,” Shiro can practically _hear_ Keith shrugging. “You never know when the opportunity may arise, superman.” Then Kuro yelps a little, and Keith laughs. “Come on, Arashi. We’ve got some free time. I suggest we use it.”

Soon, Shiro hears the soft, wet sounds of kissing and the slide of fabric over skin. A startled moan slips out of Keith as well as a pleased growl from Kuro and Shiro blushes.

“I’m just gonna… turn off my comm, to give you two some privacy.” He says.

Kuro growls again and Keith yelps.

“Don’t you _dare_ , Shirogane.” Kuro says lowly.

Shiro flushes an even deeper red and feels his cock stirring underneath his armor. “Okay,” he says weakly.

Kuro’s growl turns into a throaty purr and Keith gasps. “Oh, fuck,” he pants.

“What’s he doing, baby?” Shiro murmurs. If he’s gonna listen, he’s gonna do it right.

“He’s… _shit!_ He’s got his mouth on my,” Keith moans before he can finish the sentence.

“On your nipples?” Shiro guesses, smirking. “They’re so sensitive, aren’t they, sweetheart? Doesn’t he just make the sweetest noises when you play with them?”

Kuro purrs and Keith whines at something else. Shiro hears more fabric moving, and then the snick of the cap.

“Someone’s impatient.” Shiro coos. “You can see in there, right, Kuro? How does he look?”

A deep, pleased rumble. “Absolutely gorgeous.” Kuro purrs out, then more slick noises and Keith screams.

“Keith?” Shiro hums.

“He’s – _fuck!_ – he’s blowing me.” Keith gasps raggedly. “God, Takashi, it feels so good.”

“I know it does, baby.” Shiro rasps. “God, I wish I could see you. I bet you two look so good.”

A purr rumbles through the line, and Keith squeaks at the vibrations, then makes a tiny choked “oh” sound.

“What?”

“He’s got his hand pressed against the rocks.” Keith says quietly. “We wish you were here.”

“I am here.” Shiro says, swallowing down the lump in his throat and pressing his own hand to the rubble. “I’m right here. And god, I love you both so much.”

“We love you too.” Keith sighs. “Keep talking?”

“Of course.” Shiro murmurs. “What’s happening now?”

He hears a wet popping sound, and Kuro rumbles again. “I’m gonna finger him open and make him scream.” He growls.

“Yes, please.” Keith sighs.

There are shifting sounds for a moment, and Kuro mumbles “spread your legs for me, kitten”, then Keith moans, long and loud and sweet and Shiro shivers.

“Good?” He asks, and Keith laughs shakily.

“Love how you still ask that, even when you’re not here.” He pants, then groans again, and does _something_ that causes Kuro to growl too.

Keith cries out again, and Shiro guesses he’s added a second finger.

“Does it feel good, baby? Is he making you feel good?” Shiro asks, thighs clenching, trying to will his own erection down.

“So good,” Keith sighs. “God, Arashi, there, right there! Please!”

Kuro laughs lowly. “He loves having his prostate milked, doesn’t he?” He purrs.

“Definitely. You spoiling him, sweetheart?”

“Void yes. He deserves it.” Kuro purrs, and the sound of kissing fills the line again, broken by Keith’s tiny yelp when Kuro must slip in a third finger.

“Please,” Keith pants, and Kuro growls again. There is more shifting, then a pause.

“Ready?” Kuro asks quietly.

“Yeah,” Keith sighs, and Shiro can picture his fond smile. “Come on, Arashi.”

Another pause, then Kuro grunts, and Keith’s breath hitches.

“Keith?” Shiro asks quietly.

“I’m. Oh, I’m so good.” Keith sighs. “You can keep going.” He tells Kuro, and the other man growls a little and finishes pushing in, judging by Keith’s moan.

“Fuck,” Keith sighs. “Mm, good.”

Shiro laughs quietly. “He feel good, baby?”

“Yes,” Keith sighs. “It would be better if you could both fuck into me, but this is good. Very good.”

Kuro purrs.

“Why don’t you give him a good time, sweetheart?” Shiro murmurs. “Remind him that having one cock inside him is just as good?”

Kuro growls out a “fuck yes”, then all Shiro hears is the sound of skin slapping against skin and moans.

Shiro, being who he is, keeps up a steady stream of praise. “You two sound so good, god, I wish I could see you, wish I could _touch_ you.” “Keith, baby, you sound so lovely when you make those noises. Wanna make some more for us? Tell us how good you’re feeling?” “You’re treating him so well, Arashi, listen to those sweet moans. You’re making him feel so good, sweetheart. You’re so good.” And of course: “God, I love you both so much, and as soon as we get you out of there I’m going to pin you both to the bed.”

Eventually, Keith chokes out a cry and Shiro knows that sound well, knows he just came. Kuro snarls, but the sound is muffled – probably against Keith’s neck – and the sound of skin on skin increases for a moment, before ceasing entirely.

“Good boys.” Shiro coos while they’re catching their breath. “My good boys. I love you. I love you both so much.”

_“Mine_.” Kuro snarls. It seems to be his habit, after they’ve all come.

“Yours.” He and Keith answer dutifully. The first time they’d responded that way had resulted in Kuro puddling into a purring, whimpering mess, so they always make sure to say it now.

Silence befalls them for a while, except for Shiro keeping up his praises and affectionate murmurs. He hears their breathing calm, then Keith sighs.

“He’s asleep.”

“Good.” Shiro sighs himself. “Was he still trembling?”

“Not once he got his fingers in me.” Keith says, somewhat smugly. “But I think he was still a little freaked. He was holding me pretty tight. I’m gonna have bruises on my arms and hips tomorrow. Worth it.”

Shiro smiles and hums. “Wish I could clean you up.” He says, feeling a pang. That’s one of his favorite parts of their lovemaking, being able to tend to his lovers after.

“When we get back to the ship, we could commandeer that bath. The one we found last week?”

Shiro hums. It had been a quiet room, tucked in one of the unused levels, and contained a giant bath. Kuro had found it one day when he was exploring on his own and the three of them have used it a few times since.

“That sounds nice.”

“Don’t worry, superman. We still need you to take care of us.” Keith teases.

“I’ll always take care of you.” Shiro promises, and Keith’s breath hitches.

“God I wish I could kiss you right now.” He breathes a moment later.

“Soon.” Shiro promises. He’ll get to hold them in his arms again soon.

~*~

Pidge and Hunk return an hour later with an Altean anti-gravity device that Coran had managed to scrounge up.

“Put it next to the rubble and it’ll lift all the loose, non-organic material into the air.” Hunk says. “It’s pretty cool.”

“Thanks.” He says, then looks back at the cave, knowing both Kuro and Keith are asleep and probably still very, very naked. “I’ll take care of it. You two should head back.”

“But, I wanted to see how it works!” Pidge protests. Hunk, however, sees the look on his face, and tugs Pidge back.

“I think we should leave Shiro to it.” He insists, and Pidge frowns, then looks at Shiro, then at the pile of rubble, and her eyes go wide.

“Oh. I, uh, I guess they had to do _something_ to pass the time.” She mutters, pushing her glasses up her nose.

“I’ll take care of them.” Shiro assures. “Go back to the castle.”

The two depart and Shiro carries the squat, heavy device over to the rocks. He presses the buttons Hunk had showed him, and a blue tractor beam shoots out. Slowly, the fallen rocks rise up, hovering in the air and revealing the cave entrance once again.

Keith is flat on his back, head tilted to the side, mouth slightly open as he sleeps. Two sets of armor lay in a pile next to his head and his flight suit is torn open at the front. Kuro is laying on top of him, completely naked, head pillowed over the Red Paladin’s heart. He seems to be asleep too, until Shiro steps forwards, and one golden eye opens to a slit.

“You’re out, sweetheart.” He says, kneeling next to his lovers.

Kuro chirps and sits up quickly, causing Keith to yelp and jerk awake as the dried come between them pulls at the movement.

The Red Paladin rubs at his eyes and blinks up at Shiro, smiling. “Hey, superman. Thanks for coming.”

“Always.” Shiro promises, then leans forwards and takes Kuro’s face in his hands, kissing him gently. “I told you I would get you out. You’re safe. We’re with you.”

“I know.” Kuro breathes and nuzzles into Shiro’s shoulder.

Keith slips out from under the other man and starts gathering up his armor, scowling down at the ripped black cloth.

“Well, walking back to the lions will be fun.” He mutters, but then they hear a roar, and Black and Red descend behind them. Keith smiles up at his lion. “Good girl.”

They gather up all of the loose armor pieces and Kuro slips back into his flight suit before they board the lions and fly back up to the castle. Kuro rides with Shiro and keeps his arms wrapped around the Black Paladin’s shoulders the whole time, trembling again.

“Easy, sweetheart.” Shiro murmurs. “We’re almost home, and then we’ll take care of you.”

Kuro whimpers and nods against Shiro’s neck.

They dock in their hangers and somehow make it back to their room unseen.

Kuro collapses to the mattress, curling up in a ball and whining. Keith gets a cloth and wipes off his own stomach and between his legs before dressing in his civvies. Shiro raises an eyebrow from where he’s sitting next to Kuro, rubbing his back gently.

“Where are you going?” He murmurs.

Keith shrugs. “Gonna go eat dinner. I’ll bring you guys back some.”

Shiro’s other eyebrow lifts. “Keith…”

Keith walks over and kisses him. “I took care of him earlier.” Keith murmurs. “Now it’s your turn. I realized that this afternoon was the first time we’d had sex, just the two of us. And now, well, you two should have some intimate time to yourselves too.”

Shiro tilts his head, considering. Keith makes a good point. He and Shiro had had years to be intimate with each other, making love. But Kuro was always with _both_ of them. They did need a little time just one on one.

“Okay.” He says quietly, and Keith smiles.

“I’ll be back, probably in an hour or so. No doubt I’ll be back before you’re finished, but just in case,” Keith winks. “Have fun.” Then he heads for the door, and it hisses shut behind him.

Kuro had been quiet up until that point. “So.” He rasps, and Shiro looks down at him, still rubbing his back.

“So?”

“Uh, I don’t… I know Keith always bottoms, so…” He shifts nervously.

“Shh,” Shiro soothes, leaning down and kissing the top of his lover’s head. “I wouldn’t ask that of you unless you wanted to.”

“I don’t know.” Kuro says quietly. “Maybe… I trust you, of course, but after everything… maybe not yet?”

“Alright.” Shiro hums, kissing him again. “Then, would you want to fuck me?”

Kuro sits up quickly, staring at him with wide yellow eyes. “I, really?” he chokes, and Shiro laughs.

“Of course. Just because Keith doesn’t like to top doesn’t mean I’ve never bottomed before. I had a boyfriend before Keith, remember? Adam and I switched all the time.”

Kuro snarls dangerously and shoves Shiro onto his back.

“You’re _mine_.” He snarls. “He was the last one to touch you there?”

Shiro relaxes back into the pillows. “Yes.”

“Not for long.” Kuro growls. “And no one else will ever touch you again. You belong to _us_. Keith and I are the only ones who can touch you like that.”

“I don’t plan to let anyone else touch me.” Shiro says gently, running his palms up Kuro’s trembling biceps. “Just you. And Keith.”

“Good.” Kuro sighs, tension draining from his shoulders, and he suddenly looks sheepish. “I, sorry. I just…”

“You’re a possessive bastard.” Shiro says, smiling. “I know, sweetheart, but you don’t have to worry. You and Keith are the only ones I want touching me for the rest of my life.”

Kuro shudders out a sigh and presses their foreheads together. “Shiro…” he whispers. “Can I…?” he swallows thickly.

“What do you want, Arashi?” Shiro murmurs, running his fingers through his lover’s hair.

Kuro whines. “I want to make love to you.” He says quietly.

Shiro smiles and kisses him gently. “Please do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like Bottom Shiro a lot but don't have many opportunities to write it. So look forward to that next chapter! Also the actual (very small) plot starts next chapter, and with it, angst! Because of course! But first comes soft smut. Have a good beginning of week!


	13. Eggshell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of that plot finally comes into play properly. After the smut of course. Prepare for some mood whiplash, ya'll.

Shiro keeps his breathing steady as shaking fingers skate along his skin. Kuro is nervous, he doesn’t need to have a heightened sense of smell to tell that. He’s touching Shiro like he might break. Shiro reaches out and takes Kuro’s human hand, lacing their fingers together and squeezing gently.

“It’s okay, Arashi. You don’t have to be nervous.”

Kuro whines quietly and nuzzles against Shiro’s stomach. “I, I know, I just…” He kisses a large scar shaped like a starburst over Shiro’s ribs, and he suddenly understands.

“I’ve long since forgiven you for that.” He says quietly.

Kuro sits up a little and splays his Galra hand over the scar that the same hand had given him. “I almost killed you.” He whispers.

“But you didn’t.” Shiro says gently. “And you’re not going to hurt me now, okay?”

Kuro nods slowly, tracing a fingertip around the edges of the scar. “I love you.” He whispers.

“And I love you.” Shiro says, leaning back against the pillows once more. “Come on, sweetheart, I promise I’m not going to break.”

Kuro smiles at that. “Nobody could break you.”

Carefully, he starts tugging at Shiro’s briefs, and Shiro lifts his hips so the other man can slide them off. “You too, sweetheart.”

Kuro nods and strips out of his flight suit and underwear, tossing them off the bed before reaching up to tap open the hidden drawer and grabbing the lube.

“Come here, Arashi.” Shiro murmurs, and Kuro chirps curiously, leaning down when Shiro prompts so he can kiss him. “Go slow.” Shiro whispers against his lover’s lips. “It’s been a very long time.”

Kuro nods and kisses him again. “Tell me, if it hurts?” He murmurs.

“I will.”

Kuro sighs shakily and pulls back a little so he can pour the gel onto his fingers. He tosses the bottle to the side for the time being and settles between Shiro’s legs when the Black Paladins spreads them. Kuro swallows thickly, cheeks turning a little red.

“Gods, you’re beautiful.” He whispers.

Shiro laughs easily and props one foot up on the bed, spreading himself wider. It’s cute seeing Kuro’s eyes go huge and dark. “Narcissistic.” He hums.

“Hotter than me.” Kuro counters, smiling. Then his face grows more serious, and Shiro jumps at the feeling of fingers tracing over his entrance. Wow, it really has been a long time.

He shudders out a sigh as Kuro pushes the first digit in, rolling his hips up into the contact. God he’d missed this. He hasn’t even fingered himself in ages. He’d never begrudge Keith his preference, but it is nice to know he’ll be able to bottom again from time to time. He says as much to Kuro.

“Anytime you want, babe. Just let me know.” Kuro purrs, kissing his stomach again as he adds a second finger. Shiro hums happily and reaches up to scratch his nails through his lover’s hair.

Shiro hisses out a breath as Kuro brushes his prostate and the wild grin on the clone’s face makes his breath hitch. Then he jabs it roughly and Shiro yelps.

“Hm, I can’t tell who sounds better, Keith or you.” Kuro hums, still grinning impishly and jabbing Shiro’s prostate again.

“Ngh, Keith, probably.” Shiro grits out. “Fuck fuck fuck, Arashi!”

Kuro laughs and slides in a third finger. “I guess we’ll just have to call it a tie.”

“Sounds good,” Shiro hisses, tightening his grip in Kuro’s hair. “Fuck that feels good.”

Kuro purrs louder and leans up to kiss Shiro properly. “My mate.” He coos.

“All yours, sweetheart.” Shiro assures, cupping Kuro’s face in his hands. “Yours and Keith’s.”

Kuro hums and kisses him again before pulling his fingers out slowly. “Are you…?”

“I’m ready, sweetheart.”

Kuro nods and picks the bottle of lube up again, pouring a generous amount into his palm and spreading it over his dick before tossing the bottle aside. He leans over Shiro and presses their foreheads together for a long moment, just looking into Shiro’s eyes.

“I love you.” Shiro murmurs gently, wrapping his arms around Kuro’s neck.

“I love you too, Takashi.” He whispers, then lines up and presses inside.

Shiro throws his head back with a ragged moan, arms tightening around his lover’s shoulders. God, wow, he forgot how good that felt. And somehow it feels better than it ever has. Probably because it’s Kuro.

“Takashi? Are you okay?” Kuro whispers, kissing his forehead.

“Mm, yeah, I’m good. So good, Arashi. You feel so good.” Shiro sighs ant tilts his head back to kiss Kuro properly. “Move, sweetheart.”

Kuro growls a little then finishes pushing in. He doesn’t even give Shiro a moment before pulling back out. Shiro sighs and lets his muscles go loose, taking every snap of Kuro’s hips eagerly. He mouths at the side of his lover’s neck, leaving several tiny purple bruises in his wake. Kuro purrs at the attention and his fingers curl around Shiro’s hips, claws digging in just enough to sting.

Fuck, it feels good. Shiro had missed this. Had missed being laid out on a mattress and _taken_ like this. It never was like this with Adam, who was always so scared of hurting Shiro because of his disease. Kuro gives it to him hard and rough, as is his way, and Shiro loves it.

In fact, he’s so focused on how good it feels, he doesn’t even register that the door hissed open until a pair of hands rub over his shoulders.

“Well that’s hot as hell.” Keith purrs, running his hands down Shiro’s chest idly. “You look good when you get wrecked, Takashi.”

Shiro laughs and moves his human hand down from Kuro’s neck to grip Keith’s hand tightly. “Now you know, why I like seeing you, like this.” He gasps.

Keith hums and leans forwards to kiss him. It’s wet and messy and awkward but god it feels good. He loves these men so much.

“Hey, batman. How you doing?” Keith hums when he pulls back. Kuro growls and tilts his head up to kiss Keith quickly.

“Mine.” He snarls.

“That’s what I thought.” Keith grins.

Keith sits at the head of the bed and rests Shiro’s head in his lap. The position is a familiar one, though not from this angle. Shiro looks up into Keith’s smiling face and feels Kuro bury himself to the hilt and figures that maybe he needs to be in the middle more often.

“Fuck!” Shiro hisses and arches his back, digging his shoulders harder into Keith’s thighs. “God, feels…”

Keith hums and slides a hand down between Shiro and Kuro’s bodies, wrapping his fingers around Shiro’s dick and beginning to stroke in time with Kuro’s rough thrusts.

“Gonna come for us, Takashi? Come on, superman, let us see you lose that carefully constructed composure. It’s just us, you know you can let go with us, come on,” Keith murmurs.

Shiro’s body snaps taut as his orgasm washes over him. He doesn’t even know if he makes any noise, the sound of his heart pounding is too loud in his ears.

“Takashi,” Kuro breathes, kissing the side of his head. “So good for us, babe, you’re so good, love you, love you both so much.”

“Your turn, Arashi.” Shiro breathes back. “Come inside me. Lay your claim on me like you have with Keith. Make me yours.”

Kuro bites out another rough growl and buries his face in Shiro’s neck, hips stuttering twice more before he fills Shiro.

Shiro sighs at the feeling. He’d missed it desperately, and Kuro’s so _hot_ by nature, his come is scorching inside him, but it’s a pleasant heat. He relaxes back against Keith’s thighs, turning his head to kiss Keith’s palm where it had been cradling his face.

“Love you both.” He mumbles, nuzzling Keith’s hand. “My boys. My beautiful boys.”

Keith hums and lifts his other hand – the one covered in Shiro’s come – and begins licking it off slowly. “That’s us.” He sighs.

Kuro mumbles something but it’s muffled in Shiro’s neck.

“What was that sweetheart?” He asks gently, running his metal hand up and down Kuro’s back soothingly.

The clone huffs and pushes himself up so he can look searchingly into Shiro’s eyes. “You, you were already mine though, right? Even before this?” Kuro whispers.

“Oh Arashi,” Shiro sighs, tugging his lover down so he can press their foreheads together. “Of course I was. You just laid claim to the last little bit of me. I’m even more yours now. There’s no place left on my body you haven’t touched.”

Kuro’s shoulders lose what little tension they’d still held, and he nods slowly.

“Mine.”

“Yours.” Keith answers before Shiro can open his mouth. “Both of us. And you’re ours.”

Kuro hums and reaches up to grab Keith’s wrist, bringing his hand down to finish cleaning his fingers of Shiro’s come.

“Well I was just gonna kiss you when I was done but this works too.” Keith grins.

Once Kuro releases him, Keith stands and stretches, ducking into the bathroom to grab a washcloth and throwing it at Kuro, who catches it without looking.

“Oh hey, I brought food. Did you guys want to eat or…?” Keith trails off, looking over at the plate he’d left on the desk.

Shiro and Kuro groan. Keith just laughs. “Got it.”

Kuro cleans them both up while the Red Paladin strips out of his clothes and crawls into his spot against the wall. Kuro flops down on the outer edge and orders the lights off. Shiro is smooshed in the middle, but he’s far from complaining. The middle spot is the most sought-after place in their bed.

Shiro turns to face Keith who’s is watching him with half-lidded eyes. He feels Kuro spooning him from behind but keeps his gaze on their smaller lover.

“Do we need to take care of you?” Shiro murmurs.

Keith shakes his head and presses up against Shiro’s front. He can feel the Red Paladin’s half-hard cock pressing against his thigh.

“You sure?” He presses.

“’M good. Just wanna cuddle right now. Make it up to me in the morning?”

“I think that can be arranged.” Kuro purrs.

Shiro feels their hands skate up and down his side until they find each other. Their fingers link and rest over his hip and they sigh simultaneously. Shiro grins and closes his eyes, pulling Keith tighter against him and pressing himself further back against Kuro. There is no place else he’d rather be than right here, in his lovers’ arms.

~*~

The next morning when they arrive on the bridge (after finally tearing themselves away from each other), they are greeted with ill news. They’ve gotten the data back from the beacon and crashed ship they’d found, and it all points to a plot set up by Haggar. Druid magic had been laced into the beacon and it was confirmed by their resident geniuses that that is what had caused the cave in.

Haggar had wanted to hurt them. Trap them, just like she’d trapped Kuro before. Kuro growls at the news and wraps his fingers around Keith’s thigh. Keith pets his hair and frowns at the screen. He hates the bitch. Did she know she’d trap Kuro? Or did she just want to trap anyone who aided Voltron?

“We won’t let her hurt you again.” Keith swears. Kuro growls again and wraps his other hand around the back of Keith’s calf.

Kuro wracks his brain for days afterwards, trying to dredge up any spare scrap of knowledge he might have forgotten to tell them about the witch, but nothing comes to him. Shiro and Keith get him to re-tell them some stuff he’d mentioned before in hopes it would trigger any extra tidbits of information, and it works, a little. But not enough.

Haggar comes for them again. And this time she nearly kills Pidge.

She sends another “ro-beast” after them and it nearly crushes the Green Lion in its jaws. Thankfully the Yellow Lion had rammed the monster’s side and its grip had slackened enough for the Green Paladin to get out but it had been a very close call.

The girl had sustained some injuries but nothing the healing pods couldn’t fix. Still, it had been far too close for comfort.

“Dammit, _dammit!_ ”

Keith punches the wall in frustration. They’re down one paladin and scrambling for ideas. The one good thing they’ve discovered is that Haggar has no idea Kuro’s turned traitor. They’d discovered this the day Pidge had nearly been crushed when she’d sent them an audio communication. No visual, no way for her to see the clone sitting right at the Black Paladin’s feet.

_“You might have destroyed my pet project, Champion, but I have so many more to send after you. And you will pay for that. That prototype was almost perfect. It was what you should have been, but no matter. I can always start fresh. You cannot.”_

Kuro’s brow had furrowed at the news. She assumed Kuro was dead, killed by Voltron months ago. She had no idea he had ever betrayed her.

Something changes behind Kuro’s eyes with the revelation, but whenever Keith and Shiro ask him about it, he waves them off, telling them he’s still “thinking about it”.

They know him well enough to know that he’s mulling something over. But whenever they speak of it privately, they assure each other that whatever their third lover is thinking, he’ll tell them soon. He always does.

And he does so, a few days later.

~*~

“High Priestess, there is a ship approaching us.”

“And?” Haggar mutters, still engrossed in her latest project. She doesn’t even look up. “Shoot it down.”

“We’ve received a transmission from the ship. You will want to see this, ma’am.”

She growls in frustration and stands, storming out of her workshop and out to the bridge.

“What?” She hisses. The lieutenant in front of her salutes.

“Ma’am, the ship that is approaching contains one of your own creations.”

Haggar pauses, eyebrow lifting. Her interest is piqued. “Go on.”

The lieutenant turns and brings up an image on the screen.

Haggar’s other eyebrow lifts in surprise.

There, sitting in the pilot’s seat of an Altean pod, is her prototype of the champion. Its chin is resting in its flesh hand while its metal claws tap out a rhythm on the console. It looks very bored.

“Hey,” It says casually when it sees her, and she’s surprised. She’d thought it had stopped speaking long ago. “Got a present for ya.”

Her eyes narrow. “Where have you been?”

It shrugs. “The paladins decided to ‘rescue’ me from you and have been keeping me in the Castle of Lions. Trying to ‘humanize’ me.” It shrugs again and grins. “They actually thought it worked too.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t kill you.” She says, narrowing her eyes.

It shrugs again. “The princess wanted to, but the paladins, the Red and Black ones especially, are too soft. Too trusting. They wanted to give me a chance. Joke’s on them, though.” It laughs then. “At least I got to have some fun with them before I got out.”

Haggar hums noncommittally. That does seem to be the case, with these new paladins. Perhaps the clone speaks the truth. In any case, “You said you have something for me?”

Another toothy grin. “It’s a surprise. You’re gonna love it.”

She tilts her head. “Let it land.”

The lieutenant salutes and Haggar summons her druids to her, going to meet her creation on the landing platform.

When the pod lands, the clone hops out and walks around to the back.

“Sorry it took so long for me to report back,” it says over its shoulder. “But I think this’ll make up for it.”

It opens the back of the transport, and out tumbles the Red Paladin, bound, bruised and bloodied.

The boy sits up and spits a mouthful of blood at the clone’s feet.

“You _bastard_ ,” he hisses. “We, we _trusted you_! Shiro and I _trusted you!_ ” The boy chokes on a ragged breath that might be a sob. Interesting.

The clone shrugs and shoves the Red Paladin down with one foot. “Well, that was your mistake wasn’t it, _kitten_?”

“Fuck you, _fuck you_ , don’t ever call me that again! You have no _right!_ ”

The clone laughs again. “And how do you plan to stop me?” It looks up at Haggar. “Well? I think I did pretty good.”

Haggar looks from the sobbing boy up to the unmoved form of her creation, and nods, pleased. She knew she’d done well crafting it.

“You did indeed.” She hums. “Come, bring him. Let us see what we can get from him.”

The clone hauls the boy to his feet and shoves him towards the door.

Haggar’s mood has significantly improved. She will need to ensure her creation is still loyal, of course, but she has plans for that. But the _Red Paladin_? The Champion’s weak point? Oh, she has the _universe_ in her hands now.

And she plans to have her creation _break_ him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, see you Sunday!


	14. Bone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So see that tag up there? The "pretend" thing? That happens in this chapter. So, the content of this chapter could be pretty trigger-y. Please be careful!

“So.” Kuro says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I might have an idea of how to get more intel on Haggar. None of the paladins are going to like it.” He looks up at Keith and Shiro. “Especially you two.”

“Great I already hate it.” Keith mutters.

Shiro places a hand on his shoulder and looks at their lover with a frown. “Well, let’s hear it.”

“I go back to her.” He says, and Keith stands up from the bed.

“Nope. Next idea.”

“Keith,” Kuro whines, “Just _listen_ , okay? She has no idea I’ve betrayed her! She thinks I died fighting you guys! She doesn’t know I’m one of you now. I can get in there, prove I’m still loyal somehow – maybe give her some non-damning info – poke around and learn some shit, and then get the hell out!”

“Arashi,” Shiro says gently, placing a hand on the clone’s shoulder. “I appreciate that you’re willing to do that, but, she’ll know.”

Kuro shakes his head. “She has no reason to be suspicious. I can prove my loyalty and gain her favor again.”

“How?” Shiro murmurs. “By fighting in the arena again? By raping again?”

Kuro flinches.

“You know that’s what she’d ask.” The Black Paladin says quietly, rubbing his thumb against Kuro’s shoulder.

“I, I can figure something else out.” Kuro says, gritting his teeth. “Shiro, we need intel. She almost _killed Pidge_. We need to know what else she has planned. I’m doing this. I just, have to figure out how.”

“You said something about non-critical intel?” Shiro reminds him. “Would that be enough?”

Kuro growls. “Yes, that would be a point in my favor but it’s not enough to convince her. I need to do something _big_.”

“Then you take her a prisoner.” Keith sighs. If Kuro’s gonna do this, he’s not doing it alone goddammit. “You take me.”

Kuro and Shiro both stare at him wide-eyed for several long moments.

“No.” Shiro says firmly.

“No way in the _void!”_ Kuro hisses. “Keith, she’d _torture_ you, and I can’t let her touch you. _Ever.”_

Keith shakes his head. He sees it now. He sees how this could work. “No, Arashi. She’d make _you_ torture me. And that’s how this is going to _work_.”

“I, what, in what world is that a good thing??” Kuro all but screeches.

Keith shrugs and crosses his arms. “Because instead of like, physically torturing me, you can have sex with me.”

Kuro chokes. “I still don’t see how that’s _better!_ ”

Keith sighs. “Look, you can tell them I’ve been raped and that it scares me. Then you can _pretend_ to rape me yourself. Obviously, it will _not_ be rape because I love you and I trust you with my life, but _they_ don’t have to know that.”

Kuro sinks into the desk chair. “You’re crazy.” He chokes. “Shiro, please tell our idiot mate that he’s crazy.”

Shiro frowns down at the floor, arms crossed. “It… could work.”

Kuro makes a wounded noise. “My mates are insane.”

“Keith is right, Arashi. They will buy something like that. And you _know_ Keith trusts you. All you have to do is play the part.” Shiro murmurs.

Kuro makes a softer, more fragile sound and covers his face with his hands. “I don’t wanna hurt you, Keith.” He whispers.

Keith drops to his knees in front of the other man and tugs his hands away from his face. “You won’t.” He promises, cupping Kuro’s face gently. “I trust you, Arashi.”

Kuro shudders and leans forwards, pressing his forehead to Keith’s.

“Okay.”

They hammer out details for two more days, then in the dead of night, Kuro and Keith take one of the pods and leave the castle. They don’t tell any of the others, because Allura would pitch a fit, but they know they can bring back something worthwhile. They have to, for all their sakes.

~*~

Kuro still hates this plan. Vehemently. He hates seeing Keith cry and cuss him out, even if he knows the smaller man doesn’t mean it. He hates seeing Haggar eye his mate like he’s a piece of meat. He hates pretending he’s still her monster.

But Keith had been correct in his assumption. As soon as they toss the Red Paladin into a cell, the witch turns to him.

“Break him.” She says simply.

Kuro’s jaw tenses, but he forces the rest of his body to stay relaxed. “Sure.” He shrugs and walks towards Keith’s crumpled form.

“Stay away from me, _traitor_.” He spits when he sees Kuro approach. It hurts, seeing Keith look at him with hate. He knows it’s not real, but it hurts all the same.

“Aww, kitten,” he purrs, reaching down and tugging Keith up by the collar of is paladin armor. “I can’t be a traitor if I never switched sides.”

Keith spits in his face. Kuro growls and slams the boy into the wall. Something cracks, and Kuro prays it was just the armor.

“Just for that,” he coos, “I’ll break you in a very _special_ way.” Then he leans in and licks a stripe up Keith’s neck. He tastes like clean sweat and Keith. And for a second, Kuro tries to pretend they’re just in their room in the castle, passing time before Shiro arrives.

But then Keith tenses in his arms and he whimpers in a not good way.

Kuro swallows hard. Right. Play the part.

He turns to Haggar and the two druids flanking her. “Fun fact about Keith here,” He jerks his chin towards the Red Paladin and grins. “He’s _terrified_ of getting fucked.”

Keith stiffens in his arms. “No,” He breathes.

Kuro turns back to him, still grinning. “Oh yes.”

It’s torture.

Not for Keith – not really, he tries for it not to be – but for him.

He shoves Keith to his knees and undoes his own pants, holding the Red Paladin’s jaw open so he can shove his cock inside. Keith chokes and coughs.

Kuro hates himself a little.

They’d talked about it on the way. That Keith really would panic if Kuro actually fucked him in front of the druids and the witch, that a blowjob was preferable. But, Keith can’t blow them without triggering himself on a _good_ day.

“Kuro,” Keith had murmured over the comm. Kuro had despised the fact that he couldn’t have his mate up front with him. “It’s gonna be okay. If I start panicking, all I have to do is look up, and I’ll see you. And I’ll know I’m okay.”

The memory doesn’t do much to comfort him when Keith starts sobbing.

He comes all over Keith’s face and drops the boy to the ground. He curls up into a ball, shaking and shivering.

Kuro looks back with a raised eyebrow. “Bonus points, he and the Black Paladin are mates. He’ll never be able to look the Champion in the eye again without seeing _me_ instead.” He laughs.

Haggar hums in approval. “You really are his worst fears come to life, then. Excellent. You’ve pleased me greatly today. With the intel you’ve brought _and_ the Champion’s mate, we’ve crippled them significantly.”

She turns and stalks out of the room. “Take the paladin. Do what you will. Just leave his mind intact. I still need his knowledge.”

Kuro laughs again. “Yes, ma’am. Thanks for the toy.”

The cell door slides shut and as soon as it does, Kuro whirls around and drops to his knees.

“Keith, Keith oh gods, kitten, are you okay? Gods, please tell me you’re okay.” He pulls Keith up into a seated position and wipes his face off as gently as he can.

“I’m okay,” Keith croaks, leaning against him. “I’m alright, Kuro. I’m fine.”

“I’m so sorry,” Kuro chokes, pulling Keith into his arms and burying his face in his mate’s neck. “I’m so, so sorry kitten, I, _fuck_.”

“I’m okay, Arashi. I promise.” Keith murmurs, wrapping his own arms around Kuro’s back.

“You were _crying_.” Kuro chokes. “I, I made you cry, and I could _smell_ your panic!”

“I was okay, though.” Keith whispers. He pulls back and smiles up at Kuro. “I just looked up and reminded myself it was you.”

Kuro whines and presses their foreheads together. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, batman, I swear I am.”

A com crackles to life in Kuro’s ear. “Kuro? Keith? Are you clear?”

“We’re in, Shiro.” Kuro rasps. “Keith was right, worked like a godsdamned charm, but, I, I triggered him really bad, Takashi.”

“Keith?” Shiro asks.

“I’m okay, really.” Keith sighs. “Kuro’s more panicked than I am.”

“He was _crying_ , Shiro!” Kuro hisses.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.” Shiro soothes. “Trust that Keith knows his own limits. He’d tell you if he wasn’t okay.”

“I would.” Keith promises. “But I am okay.”

Kuro shivers and nuzzles his mate’s cheek, chirping quietly.

“I gotta turn off the com, it’s not safe to keep it on long.” Shiro says. “I love you both so much, and I’ll see you soon.”

“Love you, Takashi,” Keith murmurs. Kuro echoes with a quiet “love you” of his own, then the radio fizzles out.

Kuro holds Keith for several more minutes until his own shaking subsides.

“Sorry, I just, you know the last thing I ever want to do is hurt the two of you.” He whispers.

“I know, batman. But I am okay. I’m safe with you.”

Keith leans up and kisses him gently. “You need to actually fuck me now, though.”

Kuro recoils in shock. “ _What!?”_

“The druids will no doubt check in on you. They need to think you’re, er, making good on your threat, or Haggar will be suspicious. It’s okay. I can just scream and they’ll assume the worst.” Keith grins. “And I mean, I scream a lot when you fuck me anyway.”

Kuro chokes out a laugh. “I love you.” He whispers.

Keith kisses him again. “I love you too, Arashi.”

Keith, being the little shit he is, had thought to grab a bottle of lube and tuck it into his armor before they’d left the castle. Kuro preps him thoroughly, pressing kisses to his neck and chest the whole time. Keith does scream; agonizing, heart-rending sounds that make Kuro flinch, imagining where and why he would have screamed like that before. But when Kuro looks up at him, his violet eyes are gentle, and his hands run over Kuro’s sides soothingly as the clone presses inside.

Keith still screams, and it still sounds like the not-good kind, but his scent combined with the way he touches Kuro assures him that his mate feels safe, and that’s enough.

Later, presses his ear to Keith’s chest, listening to the other man’s steady heartbeat. Keith is calm, relaxed, even, combing his fingers through Kuro’s hair.

“I love you, Arashi.” He whispers, lips brushing Kuro’s hair.

Kuro kisses Keith’s chest and tightens his hold on the Red Paladin. He’s going to keep Keith safe from the witch, no matter what. And then they’re going to go home, where Shiro is waiting.

Kuro sighs shakily and closes his eyes. Home. He likes the thought of that.

~*~

They are in Haggar’s ship for three days.

Thankfully the witch has been outside the command center on her own ship for a while or the plan would have been scrapped. Going to Zarkon’s base again would have been a big fat NO. Their other lucky break? Apparently Keith can resist the witch’s mind probing.

When Haggar had shown up the next morning, she’d clasped the Red Paladin’s head and tried to dig for information. Kuro had watched in frozen panic, cursing himself for forgetting they didn’t need to torture Keith to get information from him. He had been readying to fight the witch and get them the hell out of dodge, when Haggar had made a frustrated noise and torn her hands away.

“He’s a stubborn one.” She’d muttered, and Kuro, relieved, had snorted.

“That’s an understatement.”

The witch had turned to him. “I suppose we’ll have to do this the hard way, then.”

“Ooh, more torture fucking? I can do that.” Kuro had purred.

Thankfully Haggar was not one to want to watch that kind of torture, so Kuro could keep being gentle with his mate in private and pretend to have done unspeakably horrible things to him when Haggar returns.

Kuro wanders the halls sometimes, when he feels it’s safe to leave Keith. He even finds some useful information about how Haggar creates her ro-beasts and deploys them. Pidge would find that useful, he’s sure. He downloads everything he can onto the data chip Shiro had given them and hides it in Keith’s armor. Seems like the entire debacle was worth it after all.

But after those three days, they mess up.

Keith wakes from a nightmare, panting and gasping, and Kuro doesn’t even think, doesn’t even consider their surroundings when he pulls his mate into his lap, hushing him and murmuring comforting words while pressing kisses to his forehead.

The door hisses open and two druids walk in. There is no way to explain the comforting embrace away. They all know it.

Kuro snarls and activates his hand, punching a hole through the closest druid before it finishes raising its hand. Keith summons his bayard and cuts the other one down.

“I think that’s our cue, kitten.” Kuro growls.

“You don’t say.” Keith deadpans, hurriedly tugging on his armor.

They sprint down the halls towards the nearest hanger. The druids must have sent some sort of signal out because suddenly, there are sentries swarming them from all sides. They fight their way to the hanger, but it takes too long. Long enough that more druids and Haggar herself manage to reach them.

The Red Lion crashes into the hanger, roaring her displeasure that her pilot is being threatened and swipes several sentries out of her path, giving Keith and Kuro a clear shot to her.

But the druids are quick. One materializes behind them and reaches for Keith. Kuro turns and slams the thing into the ground. It fights him and fuck, it’s all Kuro can do to keep it pinned. Two more are close, and Haggar is right behind them.

“Kuro! Come on!” Keith shouts.

If he lets go to run, the druids will overtake them both. Kuro growls, teeth clenching, as he realizes what has to happen.

“Red,” He spits, looking up at the great lion. He knows she understands him. “Take him. Now.”

“Wh, no! Kuro!” Keith turns but the Red Lion ducks down and scoops her paladin up into her mouth.

“Kuro! Kuro! _Arashi!”_

Kuro watches as the Red Lion turns and tears out of there, Keith safely held in her jaws. He watches as she turns into a tiny dot in a matter of moments, far too quick for the fighters to chase after.

Then he goes limp. The druid gets out from under him and he’s shoved to his knees. He goes. There’s no point fighting anymore.

Haggar walks up and looks down her nose at him, eyes cold and angry.

“You know the punishment for betrayal.” She says icily. Kuro laughs.

“I don’t care.” He spits. “I don’t give a single _fuck_ about what happens to me. All that matters is that Keith got out. That he and Shiro are safe and far, _far_ away from you. I can die happy, knowing my mates are okay.”

Haggar raises an eyebrow. “We shall see.”

Kuro is hauled to his feet and marched down the halls. He closes his eyes and lets out a shaking breath. _I’m so sorry, this was the only way. I love you both so much_.

He knows he’ll never be able to tell them that in person, but he hopes thinking it is good enough.

~*~

Shiro was alerted by a still very pissed off Allura that the Red Lion had taken off about an hour ago. He makes his way down to her hanger and waits. Several hours after her abrupt departure, she returns, landing quickly and ducking her head. Her mouth opens, but no one comes out.

Shiro frown in concern. Are they hurt? Can they not walk?

He runs up into the cockpit.

“Keith? Arashi?”

He spots Keith, curled up into a tight ball in the pilot’s seat.

“Keith.” He says, relieved. He walks around the chair and kneels in front of it, placing his hands on Keith’s legs. “Keith, baby, are you hurt? What happened? Where’s Kuro?”

“He,” Keith chokes, and Shiro realizes his shoulders are shaking. He’s crying. Shiro swallows hard.

“He…?”

“He’s _still back there_.” Keith sobs. He finally looks up, and he’s a mess, tears and snot dripping down his face, eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot.

“We, we were swarmed, and Kuro stayed to hold them off. He told Red to take me and go. I, I tried to go back for him, Takashi I _swear_ I did, but Red wouldn’t listen and,” another soul-rending sob. “I just _left him_!”

“Oh baby,” Shiro whispers, dragging Keith down into his lap and wrapping his arms around his trembling lover. “It’s okay, it’s gonna be okay.”

_“How?”_

Shiro grits his teeth and holds Keith tighter. “Because we’re going to get him back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry. This is what happens when I try to put plot into a fluff and smut fest: it turns into heavy angst. So, up next is torture and blood and other unpleasantness. So. See you Wednesday?


	15. Snow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there. This is the torture chapter. Nothing is described in detail but there is some blood and talk of torture, including heavily implied rape/non-con. Again, nothing is described, but it's there. So please read with caution, my dears.

Kuro’s felt pain before. It’s a large part of what made him who he is. He’s been tortured, beaten, broken, raped, and still survived.

All of his previous experience with pain pales in comparison to what the witch puts him through now.

The first thing she did was throw him back into the communal cell and told the inhabitants to “have their way with him”.

The fact that he now knew exactly what it was that was happening, coupled with thoughts of Shiro and Keith and how gentle they always were with him, makes the whole experience worse than ever before. He refuses to turn it around on them, though. He is not a monster. He knows what’s right. And he made a promise, besides.

Occasionally, Haggar drags him out and tries to pry into his mind. He’s scared of that until it actually happens, then he realizes she can’t control what she finds, then proceeds to flood her mind with images of Shiro and Keith and the three of them just sitting together and laughing and sleeping and wow, she gets really mad.

Kuro laughs shakily. “I told you. I’ll never let you touch them.”

She tosses him back into the cell that night and tells the other prisoners to break him.

They don’t, but only barely.

The next day she pulls him out and gives him his own cell. It’s not the isolation cell, thank the gods, but one with chains hanging from the ceiling and bolted to the floor. He’s strung up in the center of the room, suspended in the air with chains around his wrists that connect to opposite corners of the ceiling. His ankles are done the same way. A starfish. Lance would call him a starfish. He doesn’t know why that thought comes to him. He notes vaguely that he’s positioned right over a drain that’s set into the middle of the floor and realizes he’s probably in for a bad time.

They put something around his arm to prevent it from activating so he can’t break free. Then Haggar _plays_ with him. Blades, lightning, fire. Anything she can think up. She tears his skin over and over until blood runs down the chains, a large puddle of the stuff forms under him, too much for even the drain to handle.

He’s barely conscious by the time she’s done. He has no idea how long he’s been hanging here. He knows she leaves sometimes and comes back so it’s been several days. But, gods, it feels like years sometimes.

They cut him down every so often, to ensure he doesn’t bleed out. A dead plaything is no fun, after all. One of these times, the witch grips his jaw and tilts his face up, nails cutting into the skin.

“You were supposed to be his downfall.” She says. She sounds almost _disappointed._ “And I will ensure you still are. Whether you want to or not, I will have you destroy the Paladins. It’s time for an _upgrade_.”

Kuro’s stomach clenches. Upgrade. That’s how she described the ro-beast process. She’s going to turn him into one of those mindless machines. She’s going to make him hunt the paladins. She’s going to _make him hurt Shiro and Keith._

He doesn’t know where he finds the strength, but he shakes off the doctors holding him down and brings his metal hand to his throat, digging into his skin harshly with the sharpened claws.

Haggar shouts and he’s restrained by her magic. _No._

A broken whine bubbles out of his bleeding throat as it’s bandaged. No, no she would never just let him kill himself. She’s going to have him die at the hands of the ones he loves. Because of course the paladins would kill him. They’ve killed every other monster the witch has sent after them.

But gods, this will kill them. And they might not take him down before he hurts one of them, and that kills him, too.

They string him back up, Haggar watching with cold eyes. “We shall prepare tonight. Tomorrow, the ritual will commence. One way or another, you _will_ fulfill your purpose.”

Then she and the doctors leave. He slumps, letting the chains hold him. He stares down at the floor, where his blood is still dripping into a puddle. The drain is clogged.

Water mixes with the blood, and that’s when he realizes he’s crying. He rasps out a sob and clenches his eyes shut. He can’t talk to them, but he imagines what he would say, if he could.

_Keith, Takashi, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I won’t be able to stop it. You’re going to have to stop me yourselves. It’s going to kill you both but it’s going to kill me too. It’ll be okay, dying by your hands. The few months I had with you were the best of my miserable existence. I’ll be okay. I’m sorry. I love you. I’m so sorry._

~*~

They tell the others what happened. Afterwards, Keith is silent aside from his hiccupping sobs.

For the next several days, he doesn’t speak much at all, instead throwing himself into the rescue op. He curls up with Shiro at night and neither of them can sleep, not really. It’s all they can do to hold each other.

They make love, because they need to reassure themselves that at least they have each other. When they’re done, they cling to each other and wish desperately that there was a third warm body in their bed.

“We’ll get him back, baby, I promise.” Shiro whispers into his hair one night. Keith clings to that promise like a lifeline.

The others all throw themselves into the plan as well. In Kuro’s time on the castle, he’s bonded with the others. He listens to Pidge’s techno-babble without complaint. He sits in the kitchen when Hunk cooks and talks with him. He pulls pranks on Lance and watches stupid videos with him. He helps Coran with castle maintenance. He’s become part of their little rag-tag team and there’s a noticeable hole where the clone should be.

Even Allura realizes it.

“I’m sorry.” She says one night, a week after Kuro’s capture. “I’m so sorry. He – Kuro – he sacrificed himself for you. For all of us. I understand now. I realize that, that he really is a good man. He’s not Haggar’s monster. He’s not our enemy, and when we get him back, I will apologize to him as well. I’m so sorry, and I will do whatever I can to help get him back.”

Keith nods but remains quiet. He’s not sure he’s in a forgiving mood.

“Thank you, princess.” Shiro says. “If you can help us get him back, I think that will go a long way towards making it up to him.”

Well, desperate times, Keith figures.

By the time they have a workable plan, Kuro has been imprisoned for two weeks. Keith is terrified of what they’ll see when they do find their missing boyfriend. He listens to Shiro relay the plan to the other paladins while gripping Red’s controls tightly.

“Keith and I will board Haggar’s ship and locate Kuro. Hunk, Lance and Pidge will run interference for us. Allura, you and the castle will be on standby ready to wormhole us out at a moment’s notice. The two of us are _not_ leaving without Kuro, but if things get too hot, you take the other three and go, got it?”

“I, yes, Shiro.” Allura says quietly.

“Alright, everyone. We have their location. Let’s bring him home.”

Thankfully, Haggar never saw them coming, which works in their favor. Maybe she assumed they would abandon Kuro. Well, shows what she knows.

Fighters swarm them quickly, but with the other three lions doggedly pursuing them, along with well timed shots from the castle, he and Shiro have a clear shot to the battleship. They crash into one of the hangers and roll out of their lions, cutting through everything in their path.

Once the room is clear, he and Shiro emerge into a hallway, and the Black Paladin turns to him.

“Split up. I’ll try to locate a computer, see if it can tell me where to start. You start checking rooms.”

Keith nods, then turns and sprints down the nearest hallway.

He fights many, many sentries who try to get in his way, but he cuts them all down effortlessly. Nothing can stop him from finding his missing lover.

After taking down the latest sentry, a druid emerges from a hall to his right. It’s surprised, which might be the only reason he kills it as quickly as he does, but he pauses, staring down at the crumpled body. He frowns, then glances down the hall that the masked alien had emerged from.

Why would a druid be down there?

He follows his gut and starts walking down the hallway. He opens every door he passes, just like he had in all the other hallways, but the farther down the hall he goes, the tighter the knot in his stomach gets.

He pauses in front of a door towards the end of the hall, gagging a little and covering his nose against the stench of iron and salt.

Blood. Lots and lots of blood.

He lets out a shaking breath and opens the door.

~*~

Time passes. He’s not sure how much. She’ll be coming for him soon. He barely registers the noise from outside. Fighting. Fighting?

Silence. Footsteps outside the cell. A door hissing open. A hitched gasp.

“Kuro,”

His name, uttered in a breathy, familiar voice.

_Keith._

~*~

The door hisses open quietly, and what he sees inside makes him gag.

Kuro. Strung up in the middle of the room like a piece of meat. He’s held aloft, upright, head lolling, completely bare to the cold of the room. His skin is a mess of open wounds. Blood drips down the chains attached to his ankles.

Keith can’t tell if he’s even breathing.

“Kuro,” He gasps. “Kuro, Kuro oh my god.”

He hastily opens up his comm. “Shiro, Shiro, I-I found him, oh god, _Takashi_.” Tears are streaming down his face. His knees are shaking. He holds onto the doorframe to keep himself upright, staring at the still body of his lover.

“Is he alive?” Shiro says lowly.

“I, I can’t tell from here. Oh fuck, Shiro, there’s so much _blood_ …” Keith chokes.

“Hang on, I’m on my way to you. It’s okay, baby, I’ll be there soon.”

Keith makes a choked noise of acknowledgement. He can’t tear his eyes away from Kuro.

Are they… were they too late?

Did they fail him?

A faint sound comes from Kuro’s bandaged throat, and Keith jolts.

“Kuro! Kuro, oh shit, fuck,” Keith forces his legs to cooperate as he stumbles towards the middle of the room. His boots splash trough a puddle of blood but he ignores it, reaching up and tilting Kuro’s face to the side so he can see him. “Shiro, Shiro, god, he’s alive. _He’s alive_ , oh god.”

“Hang on, I’m almost there.” Shiro says quietly.

“Keith?” Kuro’s voice isn’t anything more than a hiss of air.

“I’m here. I’m right here, Arashi, it’s okay, you’re gonna be okay.” Keith says, voice cracking.

Bright gold eyes open a sliver, glowing faintly in the dimness of the room. “You… you’re here? You came back?”

Keith barks out a hysterical laugh, reaching up with his other hand to cradle Kuro’s face. “Of course we came back, you moron. We would never just leave you.”

A tiny grunt. “We?”

Shiro rounds the corner into the room in that moment.

“Oh god, Arashi,” he breathes, hurrying over to the two of them.

“Shiro?” Kuro’s brow furrows. “You both came? You came for me?”

“Of course we did. We love you.” Shiro says gently.

Kuro’s eyes slip closed again, and his shoulders start shaking. It takes a minute before Keith realizes Kuro is _laughing_ , smiling slightly. Then he coughs, and a rivulet of blood runs down his chin.

“ _Stop that_ ,” Keith hisses. “You’ll hurt yourself worse.”

Kuro hums and goes quiet again. Shiro reaches up and breaks a chain with his Galra arm, lowering Kuro’s now free arm around Keith’s shoulders. He walks around to Kuro’s back to get the other arm and freezes, eyes going wide and very, very angry as he stares.

“Shiro?” Keith whispers.

Shiro’s jaw clenches and his eyes snap shut. He breathes out slowly through his nose. “You don’t want to ask.” He says lowly.

Keith grits his teeth. He doesn’t need to, he can guess what Shiro might have seen to infuriate him while staring in the vicinity of Kuro’s lower back.

Shiro breaks the other chain, then leans down to snap the ones around Kuro’s ankles. He reaches out and takes off the restraint around the clone’s upper right arm that must have been for keeping his hand from powering up then looks at Keith.

“Let’s get him dressed.”

They find a prisoner’s get up. It’s not the best, but it will do. Kuro flinches as they maneuver him into it and with every twitch and pained noise from his lover, his resolve to tear Haggar apart grows.

They each get one of Kuro’s arms around their shoulders and begin the slow process of leading him down the hall.

“Target located, extraction in progress.” Shiro murmurs over the comm. The other paladins all chime in, expressing their mixed relief and concern. “Later.” Shiro says, and they fall silent once more.

It’s slow going, but the three of them make good progress towards the lions. The others seem to have a handle on the situation outside. For a moment, it seems like they’re home-free.

But of course they’re not.

Shiro shouts and falls to the ground, and Keith turns to see Haggar, hand outstretched, smiling down at Shiro.

_“Champion_ , how nice of you to show up.” She hums.

“Fuck,” Keith hisses, moving Kuro as gently as he can manage so the clone is leaning against a nearby staircase. He moves in front of the other man and activates his bayard as Shiro shakily gets to his feet next to him.

They’re in a large open space with catwalks above them. No cover. And great vantage points for the witch to teleport to and shoot at them from. This is going to be hell.

As usual, he’s right.

The witch pops in and out of their sight, flinging bolts of lightning and then disappearing before either of them can reach her. They’re both close-range fighters, and it works to her extreme advantage.

Eventually she grows bored of toying with them and takes to the catwalk.

“I’m afraid this is where you end, Champion. I don’t need you anymore, you see. You and your mate will die, followed by my failed creation. But I can always start anew.”

She raises her hand and it begins glowing. Shiro tries to shield him but they both know it won’t matter. Keith looks over to try and catch Kuro’s eye, but startles when he lays eyes on where he’d left the other man. Kuro is gone, and in his place is a trail of blood. Leading up the stairs.

It’s in that moment that Haggar chokes.

He and Shiro jerk their heads up to see a glowing purple fist punched through Haggar’s stomach. Kuro leans around her, snarling. He leans close and growls something in her ear and she jerks, shoving him away. He’s too weak to resist and ends up falling against the railing.

Haggar wheezes out a breath and vanishes in a cloud of smoke.

Keith and Shiro race up the stairs and grab Kuro before he can collapse. They help him down, and the rest of their trip to the lions is smooth.

Keith follows Shiro into Black and helps Kuro curl up in the Black Paladin’s lap before hurrying over into Red.

They fly out and the other lions rally around them as they fly back to the castle.

“Allura!” Keith barks.

The castle jolts, and they pass through a wormhole without further incident.

Keith has no time to rest however. As soon as they’re clear, he races to the Black Lion’s hanger and helps support Kuro as Shiro leads him out.

The others have arrived as well and all stare in stunned silence as they practically carry Kuro out of the hanger.

Allura and Coran are waiting in the pod room. Allura grits her teeth as she cues one up, while Coran helps Keith and Shiro change Kuro into one of the white body suits.

They carefully prop their lover up inside the pod, and suddenly, he seems to rouse himself out of whatever stupor he’d been in. He whimpers and shakes his head, trying to push his way out of the pod.

Keith grimaces. Claustrophobia.

“Arashi, it’s okay.” Shiro soothes, also having picked up on why their lover is panicking.  “It’s okay, sweetheart, we’re here. We’re right here. You need to stay in here, so you can heal. We don’t want you to be in pain, okay? The glass is going to close, and yes, it’s a small space, but you’ll be able to see out, alright? You’ll be able to see us. And I swear, we’re going to be right here. We won’t leave you. Ever.”

Kuro exhales shakily, but nods. He lets them press him back and the glass hisses closed. He looks up at them with wide eyes but neither of them moves away, not until his eyes slip shut and he goes under.

Silence descends upon the room.

“The damage is… severe.” Allura says quietly. “And very extensive. Several of the open wounds will still scar, even after healing. They may only be small pink lines, but they will be scars, none the less.”

“We all have scars.” Shiro murmurs. “It’ll be okay.”

Allura hesitates before continuing. “There is also… internal trauma, in his… lower body.”

Shiro’s jaw clenches.

Keith’s nails cut into his arms. “We know.” He growls.

Allura swallows thickly. “I’m so sorry.”

Shiro shakes his head. “He’s home now. We’ll take care of him.”

The princess starts to say something else, thinks better of it, then nods. She and Coran leave them standing in front of Kuro’s pod.

“Takashi,” Keith breathes, “He,”

“I know.”

Keith shudders, then turns and buries his face against Shiro’s chest. The older man’s arms wrap around him tightly. They’re both shaking with rage, and sorrow.

They stay that way for a very long time.

~*~

Kuro sleeps for four days. Shiro and Keith stay in the room the whole time. He’d promised Kuro that they’d be there.

Hunk brings them food. Lance and Pidge bring them blankets and pillows. Coran comes in to check Kuro’s vitals but other than that stays out of their way. Allura doesn’t come at all, but maybe that’s for the best.

They’re quiet, watching Kuro as he sleeps, just to make sure nothing happens. Shiro feels useless, watching the open wounds covering their boyfriend’s body slowly heal. He knows Keith feels guilty, like every mark is his fault. It will probably take them a long time to convince him otherwise.

In the last hours of the fourth day, the pod hisses open.

Shiro jumps to his feet and catches Kuro as he falls forwards with a quiet whimper. Keith comes around to help support the clone’s weight.

“Arashi? Hey, it’s okay, sweetheart, you’re safe.” Shiro murmurs.

Kuro whimpers again and buries his face in Shiro’s neck.

“Kuro? Hey, come on, batman, talk to us. Are you still in pain?” Keith whispers.

A headshake.

Shiro frowns, rubbing Kuro’s back carefully. Well, if he doesn’t feel like talking right now, they shouldn’t push.

“Come on, Kuro. Let’s get you warmed up.” The pods can leave you feeling cold, and after being in that freezing cell… he knows exactly where to take his boys, to get them _all_ feeling a little better.

The bathing room is tucked away in one of the upper levels that they don’t really use. The tub is large enough for five or six people so the three of them fit in comfortably. They haven’t used it since right after the cave-in, but all the little bottles of perfumed soap are right where Shiro left them.

He gets Keith to hold onto Kuro as he fills up the bath and gets everything ready, then he helps strip the white bodysuit off.

Kuro flinches when they start removing it and that just breaks Shiro’s heart all over again.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. We’re not gonna hurt you. Do you still believe that?”

A nod. Shaky and barely there, but no hesitation. That’s enough for them.

Shiro gets in first, leaning against the edge and helping situate Kuro so the clone’s back is against his chest. Keith climbs in after them and curls into a ball against Kuro’s front, tucking his head under Kuro’s chin.

It’s quiet, but a different kind of quiet. It’s not the tense silence from earlier, when they were on their way here, and it’s not the soft, comfortable silence that normally falls between the three of them. It’s a fragile kind of peace, like one wrong breath or movement could shatter it. But it is calm, and Shiro will honestly take what he can get after the past few harrowing weeks.

He starts humming quietly, a gentle tune to a lullaby his mother had sang to him and his siblings. Slowly, Kuro’s shoulders lose their tension and he relaxes against Shiro, tilting his head back to rest on the Black Paladin’s shoulder. His arms come up and wrap around Keith, whose breath hitches at the contact before melting into it. Shiro sees the smaller man’s shoulders start shaking, and realizes Keith is crying again. And with another jolt, he realizes that so is Kuro; his breath coming in uneven spasms.

Shiro’s jaw clenches and he wraps his arms around the both of them.

“It’s okay.” He whispers. “We’re together. We’ll get through this. The three of us all love each other and we can get through this. None of us are alone. We’re gonna be okay.”

He feels tears prick at the corners of his own eyes and he doesn’t try to fight it. They all need to let go a little, in order to move on from this.

They stay in the bath until the water goes cold. Shiro gets the other two out and dried off before they make their way back to their room. Keith crawls in and presses up against the wall in his normal spot, watching the two of them warily. Shiro nudges Kuro gently until the clone crawls in after Keith. He sighs heavily when he feels the mattress dip below him and flops onto it bonelessly. It probably feels like heaven after the hard, cold surfaces of a cell. Shiro remembers that feeling. He’s sure Kuro is re-remembering it.

He finally climbs in as well and presses up against Kuro’s back, wrapping an arm around both his boys and ordering the lights off. In the darkness, all Shiro can sense is the sound of their breathing. It’s far steadier than before.

Keith shifts some and his arm comes to press alongside Shiro’s.

“Welcome home, Arashi.” He whispers.

Kuro’s breath hitches, and he’s quiet for a long moment. Then, by some miracle, he starts purring. The sound is quiet, barely there, but it’s purring none the less.

The sound echoes through Shiro’s mind warmly as he drifts off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's home, ya'll. They're all together again. The last chapter is the epilogue, wrapping things up, like recovery and fluff and some soft smut. I shall see you all on Sunday.


	16. Epilogue: Ivory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, folks, the end.  
> Warning for talk of the rape/non-con from last chapter. Please be careful proceeding, and let me know if my warning needs to be more specific.

Kuro stops talking again for a while. Even around the two of them. Keith hates it. He understands that Kuro needs that silence, to curl into himself as a way to try and reign in all the shit he’s feeling. Keith had done it too. But it still hurts, knowing one of the men he loves is hurting that badly.

Kuro still follows them around the castle like an eager puppy, just as he always has, but he’s so quiet now. It scares the others, too.

 “Is he angry at us?” Lance asks Keith one evening. They both turn to see Kuro leaning against Shiro’s legs while the Black Paladin reads something on the screen, one hand combing through the clone’s hair.

Keith sighs and shakes his head. “No, no he’s just… not talking. At all. Even to us. After everything he went through, and his _throat_ …” Keith swallows hard. “I really don’t blame him.”

The scars on Kuro’s throat are still very visible, even after the pod. Keith wants to kill someone.

Everyone is walking on eggshells around the clone, and the scariest part may be that Kuro doesn’t get pissy about it. He accepts it, even seems grateful for it. Before, back when the others were scared of him, he would growl at them for trying to skirt around him or act like they needed to watch themselves in his presence. Now, he flinches if anyone but Keith or Shiro get too close to him. He stays as far away as possible from them all, Allura especially, and the Black and Red Paladins can see how much that worries the others.

The other paladins and Coran have grown to like Kuro, feel like he’s part of the team. And Allura… she avoids the clone nearly as much as he avoids her. She feels guilty, Keith knows, for how often she voiced her belief that he still worked for the witch. They all know better, now. And they’re all trying to make up for it by giving the clone as much space as he needs.

Even the two of them tread very carefully around their lover nowadays. He goes to bed fully clothed and twitches if they move towards him too quickly. But at the same time, he still wants to touch them. He clings to them, nuzzling against their necks or shoulders or sides as often as he can. They sandwich him in the middle of the bed every night. They tell him they love him, and he nods and nuzzles against them like he believes them. It’s nowhere near where they were, but for now, it’s more than enough.

~*~

The first time he kisses them after they get him back, they both cry.

It was early morning, a week after the rescue, and Keith had been startled awake by a high-pitched whine. He rolls over to see Kuro gripping the sheets, teeth clenched as he fights whatever he’s seeing in his head. His nightmares aren’t as quiet as they used to be.

Shiro stirs on Kuro’s other side and he sits up, running his fingers gently over Kuro’s side, murmuring quietly in Japanese, like he used to do to shake Keith out of a nightmare.

Keith snuggles closer and presses against Kuro’s chest, dragging the clone’s arm across his waist to get even closer.

Kuro wakes with a quiet gasp, arm tightening around Keith.

“It’s okay, Arashi, you’re safe. We have you.” Keith whispers, pressing a kiss to Kuro’s chest. Kuro relaxes, pressing back against Shiro and pulling Keith closer.

“We’re here, sweetheart, you’re not alone.” Shiro murmurs, pressing a kiss of his own to Kuro’s hair.

Kuro starts purring quietly and nudges at Keith. Keith lifts his head to ask what’s wrong and end up making a small, startled noise when Kuro kisses him. It’s barely more than a peck, but it’s the first time he’s kissed either of them since coming home.

“Oh.” Keith whispers. Tears prick the corners of his eyes and he screws them shut, trying to fight the sensation down. He isn’t very successful.

Kuro chirps and kisses the tip of his nose before shifting, and Keith hears Shiro squeak too. He opens his eyes to see Shiro also being kissed. Kuro settles between them while they both break down crying. He pulls them close and they all fall back to sleep. It’s easily the best any of them have slept in weeks.

~*~

Since then, things have gotten better. Kuro kisses them freely again, and he’s a lot less twitchy about touch, but he still won’t talk. They aren’t about to push, though, and they’re perfectly capable of reading the clone even without words. Shiro keeps saying he’ll talk again when he’s ready, but Keith’s still worried, no matter what the other man might say.

They’re sitting in bed one night, two weeks after the clone’s return, when he finally breaks his silence.

Shiro is leaning back against the headboard, Kuro sitting between his legs with Keith straddling Kuro’s lap, kissing all his new scars. He brushes his fingers over the deep lines across Kuro’s throat and pauses. He hates these the most.

“I’m going to kill whoever did this.” He mutters, kissing the scars carefully.

A long silence, then,

“I did that.” Kuro rasps.

They both jump, startled to hear the other man’s voice after so long. Then his words sink in.

“What? I, Kuro, a wound like this could have killed you!” Shiro chokes.

“I know. I wanted it to.” Kuro sighs and tilts his head back against Shiro’s shoulder.

“Why?” Keith whispers.

“Because she was going to turn me into one of her beasts.” Kuro closes his eyes. “She was going to turn me and send me after you. She was going to make me hurt you. I would have rather died than have that happen. But she wouldn’t let me go that easy.”

Keith’s breath hitches and he lays his hand over the scars. “Arashi…”

“You came just in time.” Kuro murmurs. “She was coming for me that day.”

“If we’d been even an hour later…” Shiro says quietly.

Kuro nods faintly. “You might have been too late.”

Keith feels cold all of a sudden. “I thought… for a minute there when I first found you, I thought we already were.”

Kuro drags him into a hug. “You weren’t.”

“We almost were!” Keith chokes. “Arashi, you were _covered_ in blood! I, I couldn’t tell… and you were so _still_ …!” He cuts himself off, shaking. “I’m going to have nightmares about that for the rest of my life.”

Kuro growls and grips him tighter. “You came, though. I thought I would never see the two of you again, but _you came back for me_. That’s… everything.”

Shiro kisses the side of Kuro’s head. “We’ll always come for you.”

“I know.”

Keith sighs shakily and nuzzles Kuro’s neck. “I’m just glad you killed the bitch.”

Kuro tenses. “No.” He growls again. The sound is a lot harsher than it used to be, thanks to the scarring. “No, I hurt her badly enough to take her out of the game for a while, but she’s not dead. Next time I find her, though, _she will be_.”

His arms tighten around Keith and he’s quiet again after that, but he calms down again under their touch.

That night, Kuro strips down to his underwear with them. They all sigh and curl closely around each other, having missed the skin contact terribly.

The next day they let the others know that Kuro is talking again. Only a little, and only to them for now, but he’s healing. That’s better news than they’ve been able to share in a while, and it’s very, very welcome.

~*~

Kuro is still cautious around the others, but around the two of them he’s almost acting normally. A little more timid, perhaps, but he cuddles up to them and takes off his clothes without thinking and he talks to them again. The only thing that hasn’t gone back to normal is their sex life, but neither of them are surprised about that, given what had happened. In fact, they don’t even bring it up. They’re both content to wait until Kuro wants to talk about it. They can ease back into it. Maybe do some consensual voyeurism again. Keith grins at the thought. He wouldn’t mind that in the least.

But Kuro is nothing if not surprising. He does bring it up soon after he begins talking, but… definitely not in the way they’d expected.

“I want us to have sex again.” Kuro says quietly, one evening when they’d been allowed to turn in early. It’s been three weeks since they brought him home.

Keith and Shiro both turn to stare at him.

“Sweetheart,” Shiro murmurs, sinking down next to the clone on the bed. “You know it’s fine however long you want to wait. Don’t push yourself just for us.”

“I’m not.” Kuro whispers, nuzzling against Shiro’s neck. He reaches out and snags Keith’s wrist, tugging him until the Red Paladin sits on his other side. “I miss you.”

“We’re right here, Arashi.” Keith assures, resting his head on the other man’s shoulder. “We don’t need to have sex to be here for you.”

“I know. But I… dammit.” Kuro growls and shakes his head. “I don’t wanna talk about this because you guys are gonna get upset but… when the witch let the other prisoners… ‘have’ me,”

Keith and Shiro flinch.

Kuro huffs, but goes on. “I just… it was so much worse this time, because… because I knew how it could be. I knew it could feel good. I knew it was supposed to be a good thing, and it _wasn’t,_ and I _hated it_. Honestly, that was worse than the other torture she put me through. I can handle pain. But… I felt like… like I was somehow betraying you guys? And I know that’s stupid as fuck, I do, because it wasn’t by choice, but I couldn’t not think it, and it just made me feel worse and…” Kuro growls again and stands, pacing back and forth in front of the bed.

“I have a lot of fucked up things going on in my head right now. And I, I don’t really know how to get it all out.”

“Take your time, Kuro. You don’t have to tell us everything right now.” Shiro reminds him quietly.

“I know, but… I need to.” Kuro stops and runs his fingers through his hair in agitation. “I need to be with you again. I need to remember what it’s supposed to be like. Maybe this is too soon. Maybe I should wait. I don’t know. I’ve never really done the whole trauma recovery thing so, who am I to say? But,” he looks at Keith. “You said everyone handles it in different ways. This is how I wanna handle it.”

“Okay.” Keith holds out a hand and Kuro takes it, rejoining them on the bed. “How do you wanna do this?”

Kuro doesn’t even hesitate. He turns to Shiro and says “I want you to fuck me.”

Shiro nearly falls off the bed.

Keith just stares at the clone. “You know, of all the things I could have thought of, that was definitely not what I expected you to say.”

“Kuro, sweetheart, we’ve never… you’ve never… _I’ve_ never…” Shiro sputters, at a loss for words, for once.

“Exactly.” Kuro sighs and leans back on his hands. “You know, it might be strange, but the one thing I was grateful for was that I’d never bottomed for you before then. Because, then, I’d really know how it was supposed to feel. I think that would have made it a thousand times worse. But now… after…” he looks at Shiro. “You two have proven to me that sex doesn’t have to hurt on many, many occasions. I need you to do it again. Show me that it can still feel good after what I went through. Show me that _I_ can still feel good. Please.”

Well how the hell could they ever say no to that?

Shiro lets out a shaky breath and kisses Kuro gently. “We can do that.”

~*~

The position is a familiar one, even if Kuro’s never seen it from this angle.

Keith is sitting against the headboard, cradling Kuro’s head in his lap while Shiro kneels between his legs. He figures that now everybody’s been everywhere, and that’s only fair, right? Things are always equal between the three of them. He has just as much power here as the two paladins above him do.

He has to keep telling himself that and tries not to flinch as Shiro touches him.

“Arashi, if this is going to trigger you,” Shiro begins firmly, but Kuro shakes his head. No, dammit. He knows he’s safe. He knows the two men here with him love him. He knows that.

“I’ll be okay.” He promises.

“If it gets to be too much though,” Keith says quietly, petting through his hair, “tell us, okay? I know you wanna feel normal again, batman, believe me, I do. But it’ll just set you back more if you ignore those warnings, alright?”

Kuro nods slowly. “Yeah, I… yeah.”

Shiro ducks down to kiss a new scar on his stomach gently, and already, Kuro can feel himself relax a little. They’re always gentle. They’re his mates and they love him and they have never hurt him here, in their nest. Kuro can let go a little.

He sighs quietly and lets his eyes slip shut, feeling Shiro kiss down further, across his lower stomach and thighs. Just light brushes of lips, barely there, but they feel so good after so long.

One of Keith’s hands finds his human one and laces their fingers together. Kuro squeezes once, then again, tighter, when he feels Shiro’s slick fingers brush against his hole.

“Just me, sweetheart. You’re okay.” Shiro murmurs against his hipbone. “Come on, Arashi, relax for me. You’re so tense right now, and I don’t wanna hurt you.”

Right. He really, really doesn’t.

 Even knowing that, believing that wholeheartedly, it still takes several minutes for Kuro to force his muscles to relax. He doesn’t realize just how relaxed until he feels the tip of one of Shiro’s fingers dip inside.

He jerks, startled, but Keith leans down and kisses him, and just like that, he relaxes again.

“Okay?” Shiro asks quietly.

Kuro shifts a little, analyzing the sensation. It doesn’t hurt, that’s true. It’s certainly better than the last thing he felt down there, but it’s not exactly pleasant either.

“Okay.” He confirms. “Just kinda… weird.”

Keith snorts above him. “Oh, just wait.”

He opens his eyes and sees the Red Paladin grinning down at him. “If you say so, kitten.” He huffs. “Go on, Shirogane. I’m not gonna break.”

Shiro pauses, and Kuro glances down to see the other man giving him a strange look. Then he smiles.

“No one could break you.” He says, and Kuro huffs a laugh at the words getting tossed back at him. Yeah, he guesses that’s true. They didn’t break him. Being here, with the two men he loves, proves that.

Shiro slides his finger the rest of the way in and feels around inside. Kuro squirms a little at the sensation, but there’s still no pain.

“Go on.” He tells Shiro. “I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

He gives the Black Paladin a withering look, causing Shiro to laugh.

“Okay, okay, going on.” He giggles. He slides in a second finger and this time, Kuro feels a twinge which makes him freeze. Shiro freezes too.

Kuro’s vision goes a little wonky and he feels his breathing do a weird thing, but then he pauses, feeling gentle fingers massage his scalp.

“It’s okay, Arashi, it’s just the stretch.” Keith murmurs. “It stings a bit at first, but I promise you it’s gonna feel so good. Trust us, okay? We’ve got you. We’re not gonna do anything to hurt you.”

Keith’s soft voice pulls him back from whatever edge he’d been hovering at and he nods shakily, releasing the breath he’d been holding.

“I’m okay.” He tells Shiro. “Move. I’m okay.”

Shiro nods once and scissors his fingers a little. It’s still a little stingy, but it doesn’t cause Kuro to freak out, so he says nothing. Shiro is careful in his exploration, and Kuro finds himself relaxing into it. It’s still not anything Kuro would call _pleasurable_ but it’s not terrible either. He could get used to this.

Then Shiro crooks his fingers to the side and Kuro blacks out for a second. Or maybe whites out. He’s not sure he just knows that _holy shit that was incredible_.

“What the fuck?” He chokes, feeling his muscles clench spastically around Shiro’s fingers with no conscious effort on his part.

Shiro laughs and Keith hums, a wicked grin curling his lips. “I think Shiro just introduced you to your prostate.”

Well fuck, no wonder Keith had come from just their fingers before. Holy _shit_ , yes please, more of that.

Another round of laughter from his mates informs him he might have said that out loud but who cares? Shiro jabs that spot again and Kuro just gives up on thinking for a while because _wow_.

He does feel a stretch as Shiro adds a third finger but seeing as it immediately joins the other two in massaging his prostate, he doesn’t complain.

After several long, hazy minutes, the feeling stops, and Kuro growls petulantly. Shiro huffs a laugh and leans up to kiss him quickly. “If you want, we can just do this. I can get you off with my fingers and we’ll leave it at that. You’ve already done so well, sweetheart. I don’t want you to push yourself.”

Kuro pauses, considering. Shiro is right, all things considered, this is good progress for him. But, he wants to do more. He _wants_ to.

“I want you.” He says quietly. “Takashi, I want you inside.”

Shiro nods slowly. “If you’re sure.”

“I am.” Kuro leans up and nips the other man’s ear. “Make love to me.”

Shiro shivers. Even Keith’s breath hitches at the words.

“Okay.” Shiro whispers. He slides his fingers out slowly, and for a moment, Kuro regrets his decision. He misses their warmth and even the stretch. He feels kind of hollow now. A good kind of hollow. Which is kinda weird but also good? Fuck he’s not good at thinking in these types of situations.

Keith’s hand squeezes his again and Kuro squeezes back. Right, thinking hasn’t ever really been his forte anyway. Feeling and doing are much more his style, and he’s about to feel a whole lot.

Keith grins like he can read Kuro’s mind. Or maybe the other man’s just good at reading him.

Kuro looks back at Shiro when the Black Paladin shifts up over him, bringing their faces close together so that their foreheads touch.

“Ready?” Shiro breathes.

Kuro purrs quietly and closes his eyes. “Yeah.”

“I love you, Arashi. We both love you so much.”

Kuro grins. “I know.”

Shiro huffs a breath, and then he pushes inside.

Kuro’s not sure what happens after that but the next thing he knows, Keith’s hands are cupping his cheeks and Shiro’s lips are pressed against the side of his neck, moving quickly as he murmurs gentle words in his native language.

“Back with us?” Keith asks quietly.

“Didn’t know I’d left.” Kuro says shakily. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.” Shiro soothes. “Keith was the same way, once. We were expecting it.” The other man leans back so he can see Kuro’s face. “Are you in pain?”

Kuro pauses, evaluating. He feels stretched out and a little tingly. It’s unusual, but pain?

“No.” He finally says. “No, I, I’m good.”

Shiro nods once. “Let me know when I can move, alright?”

“Go ahead.” Kuro sighs, tilting his head back into Keith’s lap again. “I’m good.”

Shiro nods, kisses his forehead, and presses forwards.

Kuro gasps as he feels Shiro shifting inside him, going deeper and deeper until his hips are flush against the backs of Kuro’s thighs. Wow.

It’s the weirdest sensation. He feels very… full. But, in the best way possible. He’s been here before. This has happened to him before, so why does it feel like this is the first time he’s ever had a dick in him? But… no, no it hasn’t happened before. Not really. Never like this. Never with someone who’s so careful with him. Who cares about him so much.

“Wow.” He whispers. He doesn’t know what else to say.

“Okay?” Shiro murmurs, and Kuro smiles.

“Yeah, I, it… doesn’t hurt. At all. It’s the weirdest thing.” He laughs a little. “Okay, I admit it: you were right. Sex doesn’t hurt.”

Keith grabs his hands and squeezes. “We told you.” He says fondly.

“Yeah you did.” Kuro laughs again, feeling giddy. “Okay, Shiro. I’m good. You can move.”

Shiro ducks his head and kisses Kuro slowly. He melts into it, purring quietly as his mate slowly pulls out and presses back in.

Shiro’s movements are slow and languid, and at times it feels like he’s barely moving at all, but it still sets Kuro’s blood on fire. He feels something warm and light growing in the pit of his stomach with every slide of Shiro’s cock inside him. It’s… amazing.

Kuro sighs and turns his head to nuzzle against Keith’s thigh, squeezing his hands that are still gripping his own.

“Good?” Keith murmurs, leaning down and pressing a kiss to Kuro’s forehead.

“Yeah,” he breathes. “Oh yeah.”

He gets it. He gets why even after everything Keith went through, he still bottoms for Shiro every time. He gets why it helps keep his bad memories at bay instead of making them come forwards. This is nothing like before. This is something entirely different.

He grins and nuzzles into Shiro’s neck. Making love. He understands the term now.

“Love you.” he purrs. “Love you both, gods, fuck, you feel so good.” He sighs, and bites at Shiro’s neck, sucking a bruise into the skin. It’s been far too long since he last laid his claim on his mates. Time to see about fixing that.

“So do you, sweetheart.” Shiro murmurs. “And we love you too.”

“Of course we do.” Keith adds, releasing one of Kuro’s hands and trailing his fingers down the clone’s stomach. “And we have the rest of our lives to prove it to you.”

“Yeah,” Kuro breathes, groaning as Keith’s hand wraps around his dick, movements equally as slow as Shiro’s inside him. Even so, it doesn’t take long before he’s spilling between them.

“Arashi,” Shiro breathes. “Good, so good, sweetheart, god, love you.”

“Come on, Takashi.” Kuro purrs into the other man’s ear. “Come inside me.”

Shiro does so with a low groan, muffled against his neck.

Kuro doesn’t know how long they stay there, warm and content. But eventually, Keith slides out from under his head, causing him to growl quietly.

“Hush, batman. I’ll be right back.” True to his word, Keith returns a moment later and hands Shiro a washcloth. Ah, right.

Shiro pulls away (pulls _out_ and Kuro’s not embarrassed to admit he’d whimpered at the loss) and wipes Kuro off slowly, carefully, before cleaning himself up as well and tossing the soiled cloth across the room. The other two push him until they get him under the covers and sequestered between them. The lights are ordered off and then there is silence, only broken by soft breaths and gentle sighs.

Kuro closes his eyes. For the past few weeks, whenever he’d closed his eyes he’d been back in the witch’s ship, either in the communal cell or his torture chamber. But this time, he knows he’s safe and sound in his nest with his mates.

He sighs and falls asleep. If he has any dreams, he doesn’t remember them.

~*~

Kuro is better. He’s not back to the way he was, but Shiro expects he never will be. Traumatic experiences change a person. The three of them are painfully aware of that. But their lover is healing.

He’s talking to the others again, and they are all ecstatic to hear his voice. He accepts Allura’s choked apology, even if things between them aren’t – and may never be – comfortable. He wanders the castle alone again. He strips off his clothes without a thought. He kisses them regardless of when or where. He sleeps with them. He laughs.

The laughing is important. Laughter means things are going to be alright again. That one can remember there are good and light and fun things in the universe to be happy about.

Kuro is different now. Of course he is. He’s a little rougher around the edges. He has a few more scars and a few more horrors that find him in his sleep. His voice is raspier thanks to the scars across his throat. But he’s happy, and whole, and he knows they love him. And he loves the two of them in return.

Shiro smiles as he watches Keith knock Kuro to the training room floor, straddling his chest and kissing the life out of him. They’re both giggling like crazy and it makes the kiss very toothy, but they don’t seem to care. They’re happy. Haggar is a shadow that darkened their lives for a while, but now they’re in the clear again.

Shiro sighs, uncrosses his arms, and walks towards his boys.

This is enough. This is everything. The three of them together. That’s all he needs.

~*~

They stand at the large observation window on one of the upper floors. It’s late and they should all be in bed, but no one brings it up, and no one moves towards the door.

Kuro cocks his head to the side, listening to the heartbeats of the men next to him. Steady, calm, in sync with his own.

“So, what now?” He asks. His voice is loud in the stillness of the room.

A shrug to his left. “I guess… everything that comes next.” Keith says easily.

“And whatever it is, we’ll face it together.” Shiro murmurs from his other side.

Keith snorts. “Wow superman, that was cliché as hell.”

“It’s true, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but still.”

Kuro grins as his mates bicker playfully back and forth. He closes his eyes and breathes in. Their scents calm him, make him feel something he’d never felt before he met them. Something he only ever feels when he’s with the two men he loves more than anything. He feels at peace.

He feels human.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it my dears. Kuro's saga has come to a close. I hope you all enjoyed this extremely self-indulgent, fluffy, smutty, angsty mess of an OT3 fic!
> 
> ...BUT WAIT.
> 
> Since my fics can never be contained, I plan to write a sort of canon-compliant sequel fic to this! If you know my writing, you know this is kind of my thing! Am I really going to re-write the series with some changes and edits for a third time!? Yes, yes I am. Are you all sick and tired of me doing that yet? Probably. But too bad, I'm doing it anyway! I have no idea when it's gonna be done though because I still need to write Part 5 of TLABL (ack) and that takes priority right now, but it is a thing that is going to happen. It even has a name: Shades of Red and Gray. So if the idea of Kuro being along for the hectic ride that is canon appeals to you, check back in a few months and see how that goes down (haha Shiro disintegrating and everything Kuron-related and The Black Paladins and Earth shenanigans are gonna be FUN)! Until next time, my lovelies~!


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